Amnesty International Report 1998 - Azerbaijan

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)

Around 20 possible prisoners of conscience were reportedly held solely on grounds of their ethnic origin in connection with the Karabakh conflict; about half were released in prisoner exchanges in the first six months of the year. Several groups of political prisoners were convicted in proceedings that reportedly fell short of international fair trial standards, mainly because testimony allegedly extracted under duress was allowed into evidence. There were numerous reports of torture and ill-treatment in detention. At least 16 death sentences were passed. No commutations were reported, but a moratorium on executions was announced officially.

President Heydar Aliyev met his Armenian counterpart in April as efforts to resolve the situation in the disputed Karabakh region continued (see Amnesty International Report 1997). In April and May more than 30 detainees held by Azerbaijan, Armenia and the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic were released to mark the third anniversary of a cease-fire in the region.

In September the Speaker of Parliament announced that a moratorium on executions, in place since 1993, would be given legal force and would continue until the year 2010.

Among the detainees released by Azerbaijan in the prisoner exchanges of April and May were seven ethnic Armenians reportedly held as hostages on grounds of their ethnic origin, rather than on the basis of criminal charges. They included two women, Larissa Kirakosian and Irina Kachaturian, and 15-year-old Armen Nersisian, detained the previous year (see Amnesty International Report 1997). All those released were said to be civilians, with no connection to the Karabakh conflict: Larissa Kirakosian, for example, alleged that she had been detained originally in Turkey while a tourist there, and subsequently handed over to Azerbaijan.

In the past, the Azerbaijani authorities have stated that ethnic Armenians suspected of, for example, complicity in terrorist actions have been taken to a special holding centre in the town of Gobustan and detained while their identity and reasons for travelling in Azerbaijan were confirmed. However, there were further reports of people continuing to be detained although no evidence of criminal activity had been found and no criminal charges were laid against them. For example, 18-year-old Artur Papayan was said to have been seized by Azerbaijanis in January while walking in Armenia's border district of Taushsky, and taken to Gobustan.

Several groups of political prisoners were convicted in proceedings that reportedly fell short of international fair trial standards, mainly because testimony allegedly extracted under duress was admitted as evidence. For example, at a trial of 37 members of the special police unit known as opon, which ended in January, 24 of the defendants alleged that they had been subjected to physical or mental duress during the investigation period in order to extract testimony implicating them in a failed coup. Murshud Mahmudov stated that electric shocks had been applied to his ears. Abulfat Kerimov testified that he had been hung upside-down and beaten. A medical examination carried out at the request of defence lawyers showed that at least three of the defendants had sustained broken ribs, but it was not possible to establish the precise time or cause of the injuries. All the defendants were subsequently sentenced to long periods of imprisonment.

Numerous other allegations of torture and ill-treatment in pre-trial detention and police custody continued to be received; at least one person was said to have died as a result of such treatment. Samir Zulfugarov died in Semashko hospital in July, three days after his arrest on a charge of possessing drugs. The head of the anti-drug division at the Yasamalsky District Police Department had reportedly contacted the detainee's father to demand money for his release, and the father saw his injured son in a police cell. He had allegedly been severely beaten by police. A criminal case was instituted against one police officer but the outcome was not known at the end of the year.

There were proceedings in some other cases of alleged ill-treatment, but according to unofficial sources these rarely resulted in prosecution or imprisonment. In November 1996, for example, a criminal case was opened into the beating of journalist Taptig Farhadoglu, who reported that a man he subsequently recognized as a senior police officer had been among a group of men who beat him on the street in the capital city, Baku, that month. The case was reportedly closed in January by the Baku city procurator for lack of evidence, but reopened in April following wide protests. No further developments had been reported by the end of the year.

Two other journalists reportedly beaten by police officers in September also alleged that officials were reluctant to investigate. Zakir Jabbarly and Dilgram Bairamov were said to have been assaulted by three employees and the head of the Passport Department of Narimov District Police Station in Baku where they had gone to seek further information on the alleged illegal registration of residents at a hostel. Zakir Jabbarly was hospitalized; he reportedly lost consciousness and suffered from severe headaches and blood in his urine as a result of the attack. Dilgram Bairamov claimed that the district deputy procurator initially refused to open an investigation into the alleged beating.

At least 16 death sentences were reported to have been passed during the year, although the actual total was believed to be much higher. Among those sentenced to death was Karen Gevorkian, an ethnic Armenian, who was convicted in April of murder, espionage and sabotage by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. Karen Gevorkian was pardoned and released in the May prisoner exchange.

No commutations of death sentences were reported, and no executions took place. Over 100 men were believed to be on death row at the end of the year.

Amnesty International sought further information on possible prisoners of conscience, and urged the release of anyone held without charge solely as a hostage, or on grounds of their ethnic origin.

Amnesty International called for a judicial review of all political cases in which fair trial standards had allegedly not been met, and urged that all allegations of ill-treatment and torture by law-enforcement officials be investigated promptly and impartially, with the findings made public and any perpetrators brought to justice.

The organization welcomed the official moratorium on executions, urging that all pending death sentences be commuted and further steps be taken to abolish the death penalty completely.