Spouse of an Azerbaijani activist calls her ban on leaving country an act of blackmail

The defence challenged the ban on leaving the country imposed on Anara Alieva, a spouse of an arrested activist. According to the woman, by banning her departure, investigators want to get evidence against her husband. By restricting the travels of prisoners’ relatives abroad, the authorities usually try to force the convicts to stop criticizing them, but the above ban has become a precedent, as Anara Alieva is being pressured to send her husband to jail, human rights defenders say.

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. The woman said that Anar confessed under pressure.

Anara Alieva says that she is being blackmailed. By promising to lift the ban on leaving the country, the investigator offers her a “deal”: to testify that Anar used drugs and persuade him to admit it himself.

Anar Mamedli, the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS), noted that in Azerbaijan, there were also earlier politically motivated restrictions on freedom of movement. “Such bans were imposed on a son of disgraced Minister for Public Health Ali Insanov and family members of Farkhad Aliev, the former Minister of Economic Development. Besides, bans were unreasonably imposed on Valekh and Salekh Rustamov, brothers of former political prisoner Talekh Rustamov,” Anar Mamedli said.

Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, believes that in the Anara Alieva’s case, the provisions of the Constitution of Azerbaijan are violated: the woman is being restricted in her freedom of movement and forced to slander her husband.