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Spokespersons of EU commissioners Catherine Ashton and European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule made a joint statement accusing the situation with the civil society of Azerbaijan.

“We note with dismay that another prominent human rights defender, Rasul Jafarov, has been arrested in Azerbaijan. The charges against Mr Jafarov appear to be directly linked to recent changes in Azerbaijan's legislation covering non-governmental organizations. We stated our concern at these changes in our statement of 12 February 2014,” reads the statement of the EU commissioners.

The statement also reads that the arrest of Mr Jafarov, coming just after the arrest of Leyla Yunus last week, and then Arif Yunus, increases the impression that the authorities are systematically restricting the space for public discourse and civil society in Azerbaijan.

"We are also concerned about the deteriorating situation around Nagorno Karabakh, and we believe that civil society plays an important role in protecting the fundamental freedoms of citizens during the conflicts. We urge the Azerbaijani government to reconsider its policy towards civil society in accordance with the international standards," the Commissioner noted.

Note that the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland also issued a statement condemning the arrest of the human rights activist Rasul Jafarov.

"Azerbaijan is not in compliance with its international obligations which require the protection of freedom of expression, assembly and association. It is necessary that Azerbaijan changed the situation in the country cardinally. The first step should be the release of all those detainees arrested for the views they expressed. I will continue raising these issues in my report," Jagland said in his statement, published on the website of the Council of Europe.

At the last session of the PACE in Strasburg Rasul Jafarov and several other human rights activists made a report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. A month ago, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE in Baku Jafarov and other activists held a public hearing on civil society issues. Both of these events have caused a backlash in Baku. Authorities got furious with the decision of PACE to appoint a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Human rights activist Leyla Yunus was arrested on 30 July in her house yard. A number of charges were brought up against her among them that of state treason. According to the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) of Azerbaijan as of 21 May 2014 there were 130 victims of political repressions in Azerbaijan: 41 of which are prisoners of conscience and 89 are political prisoners.