Human rights defenders call ban on leaving Azerbaijan for activist’s wife illegal

The ban on leaving the country imposed on a spouse of arrested activist Anar Aliev is illegal, and the very persecution of the activist is politically motivated, human rights defenders in Baku believe.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on July 25, activist Anar Aliev, who came from Germany to visit his sick father, was arrested in Azerbaijan on the charge of drug trafficking on a large scale, and his wife was banned from leaving the country.

Namizad Safarov, an expert in the field of law, a coordinator of the Committee against Repression and Torture, calls the ban on leaving the country imposed on the Anar Aliev’s wife unreasonable.

“According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, a ban on leaving the country can only be imposed on a person involved in a criminal case as a defendant,” Namizad Safarov explained.

Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, is of the same opinion.

“The Azerbaijan’s authorities literally organized a hunt for activists who were expelled or returned from Germany on their own. The authorities’ goal is obvious” they want to punish the activists for drawing international attention to the violation of human rights in Azerbaijan, as well as to intimidate other political emigrants in Europe so that they stop their protests,” Elshan Gasanov told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

The head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners also pointed out the illegality of the ban on leaving the country imposed on the spouse of Anar Aliev. “She is not even a witness in the case. She cannot be a witness in the case against her husband. This is lawlessness,” the human rights defender stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 18, 2022 at 12:22 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.