Your trusted source

Yesterday, 3 months custody was decided to implement against the detained Azerbaijani human rights activist, "Institute for Peace and Democracy" NGO director Leyla Yunus, reports Azerbaijani news portal "Haqqin.az" referring to Yunus’ lawyer Jawad Javadov.

Human rights activist was detained yesterday, in her own yard. She was charged with treason, tax evasion, illegal business, falsification of documents and large-scale fraud. her husband Arif Yunusov is also accused of treason and fraud on a large scale.
Commenting on the arrest of the human rights activist, Arif Yunusov stated that absurd accusations are put forward against them, and the investigators behave unprofessionally, "it is obvious that this is a contracted deal."

"I was ashamed of questions put in front of me by the prosecutor's office. I did not know whether to laugh, or cry. Just now I realized what people felt in 1937, when meeting investigators of this type. As a historian, I have written a lot about it, but did not fully understand those processes. Now I understand that period of our history," Yunusov said. He added that he will bring a complaint for sure.

"We will reach the gates of the European Court. We do not take seriously these charges, the facts are falsified," he said.

Human rights organization Amnesty International issued a statement, which noted that despite Azerbaijan's commitments as a member and the current Chairmanship in the Council of Europe, persecutions of human rights activists continue in the country.
"Leyla Yunus is another independent voice in Azerbaijan, which the authorities have long tried to suppress through threats and intimidations. Having failed in their attempts, they resorted to fabricated charges and arrests in order to punish human rights activist for criticizing the government," said Natalia Nozadze, the analyst of AI on Azerbaijan.

Amnesty International believes that the accusation of treason is part of a campaign against Leyla Yunus.

Famous Azerbaijani human rights defender Leyla Yunus and her husband conflictologist Arif Yunus were detained on 28 April at Baku’s airport, as they prepared to board a flight to Doha. They were planning to fly to Paris and then to Brussels as they were invited by the EU for participating at an international event. Leyla Yunus was summoned to an interrogation to the department of grave crimes investigation of the General Prosecutor's office where she spent 9 hours. Her husband Mr. Yunus, who was detained together with her, was hospitalized in a pre-stroke condition. Also, officials searched the couple’s home and the office of IPD.

The Human rights commissioner at the Council of Europe Nils Muižnieks, the EU, the US State Department, the US Embassy in Azerbaijan and human rights organizations such as the Norwegian Helsinki committee, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) have all condemned the arrest of Leyla Yunus in Baku.

Last week, Yunus announced about the campaign of boycotting the European Games to be held in Baku in 2015. She stated that it would be unacceptable to conduct such activities in a country where human rights are violated and hatred against their neighbors is promoted.