Two representatives of European Parliament call on Azerbaijani authorities to release Gubad Ibadoglu
Case of Gubad Ibadoglu
Two authorized representatives of the European Parliament appealed to the Azerbaijani authorities with a call to release economist and opposition politician Gubad Ibadoglu. But the Azerbaijani government does not respond in any way to the calls of influential international structures. The Court of Appeal recently rejected the petition to change the preventive measure to house arrest Ibadoglu, and left him under arrest.
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Statement by representatives of the European Parliament
On August 22, Head of the European Parliament Delegation for the South Caucasus Marina Kaljurand and Permanent Rapporteur of the European Parliament for Azerbaijan Zheliana Zovko issued a joint statement on the case of Gubad Ibadoglu.
“We are seriously concerned about the arrest and rapidly deteriorating health of Gubad Ibadoglu, a well-known Azerbaijani scholar and opposition leader. He was denied access to diet food and life-saving medicines. He is subjected to degrading treatment and limited contact with his family and lawyer, which is a violation of his fundamental rights.
We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to urgently provide him with the necessary medical care and medicines and release him immediately,” the statement said.
The document also noted that the case of Gubad Ibadoglu testifies to the deterioration of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Azerbaijan in recent months, as noted in the resolution of the European Parliament dated March 15, 2023.
“Thus, opposition politicians, independent journalists and human rights activists, such as Polad Aslanov and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, were convicted on dubious charges.
We also regret the ongoing criminal case against well-known human rights lawyer Elchin Sadikhov and the termination of his lawyer’s license as of July 6, 2023.
We call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and the dropping of all politically motivated charges.
We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to uphold fundamental freedoms and human rights and note that their continued failure to do so causes significant damage to the international image and authority of the country.”
What happened?
On July 23, Gubad Ibadoglu, chairman of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Movement, was detained by officers of the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime. He was charged under Article 204.3.1 of the Criminal Code (if an organized group committed the manufacture, acquisition or sale of counterfeit money or securities).
According to information released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one of the four people detained in the course of a special operation related to FETÖ (an organization declared terrorist in Turkey, whose head, Fathullah Gülen, is a preacher living in Pennsylvania, USA), had links with Ibadoglu which led to his prosecution.
Searches were carried out in his office, apartment, and dacha. On July 24, the Narimanov District Court of Baku city sentenced the opposition politician to three months and 26 days of arrest.
Ibadoglu pleads not guilty and links his arrest to political activities.
Two weeks later, Turkish law enforcement officers detained and handed over to the Azerbaijani government another economist, Fazil Qasimov, who lives and works in Istanbul. According to official information, he was arrested in the case of Gubad Ibadoglu and he was also charged with a similar charge under article 204.3.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Such influential international structures as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights House, and a number of Western and European embassies appealed to the Azerbaijani government to release Ibadoglu.
Hacking in the apartment of the son of Ibadoglu
The day before, Emin Bayramov, the son of Gubad Ibadoglu, who lives in the United States, said that there had been a break-in at his apartment. According to him, this happened in the state of New Jersey, in the apartment where he lives with classmates. Bayramov is a fourth-year student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA.
“For some time I was not at home, and when I returned, my room was completely destroyed. Everything was fine in my neighbors’ rooms. Only in my room all the things were scattered, as if they were carefully looking for something. It was not a robbery, as there were expensive things in the house, they could have been taken away, but everything was in place. They took away only my bag, where there were my visa documents, copies of visa, bank documents, my father’s working documents.”
Emin Bayramov believes that the Azerbaijani authorities were involved in the incident. According to him, he held various meetings in various US structures regarding the arrest of his father, and the government might not like it:
“It’s very scary to realize that they can come so close. I expect everything from the Azerbaijani state. I talked to international human rights activists, they said that this is a classic tactic, they are trying to intimidate you. I reported the incident to the police. They did not intimidate me, and I will continue my meetings until my father is released.”
The Court of Appeal dismissed the complaint
On August 21, the Baku Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of Gubad Ibadoglu. He challenged the decision of the Narimanov court to search the office of Gubad Ibadoglu, where he had not been for the past 2 years. Ibadoglu himself also participated in the trial.
And on August 18, the Baku Court of Appeal partially satisfied the cassation complaint regarding the ban on Ibadoglu’s telephone conversations and meetings with family members, and for the first time in 24 days of arrest, he was able to call his family.
