in Russian — https://miaban.ru/info/azerbaijan/aboszoda-8-9-2020/
On July 30, 2019, on the website Miaban.ru there was a Brief information on the continuing crimes of Azerbaijan against human rights defender F. Aboszoda: Russian version and English version. The Coordinating Council of Russian-Armenian Organizations (CC RAO) is the only Armenian organization in the world that regularly monitors, reports on news related to Aboszoda, protects his rights, popularizes his legacy and exposes the criminal acts of the fascist authorities of Azerbaijan against the outstanding scientist and humanist. At the end of that Brief information in 2019, the silence of the international community and the media was noted. In the summer of 2019, a representative of the CC RAO spoke at a major Armenian media forum in Beirut, urging colleagues from different countries to speak in defense of Aboszoda.
A year later, the CC RAO offers an updated version of the Information about the case of F. Aboszoda and again in two languages. However, we leave the picture the same as in 2019, since as Aboszoda remains a hero of our time, and so Ilham Aliyev remains a disgrace of our time.
When using this material, it is necessary to refer to the source and CC RAO.
Who are the Talysh people?
Talysh are an ancient distinctive Iranian-speaking ethnos living in the southeast of the Republic of Azerbaijan and in the northwest of Iran[1]. Their number, according to various sources, ranges from 250 thousand to 600 thousand people.
Official Baku denies the Talysh their right to national identity, education in their native language, knowledge of their history, observance of customs and rituals, and also denies national-territorial self-determination.
In 1993, the Talysh-Mugan Autonomous Republic[2] was proclaimed, and Fakhraddin Aboszoda was elected chairman of the republic’s parliament, but later the republic was liquidated. In 2018, in the Netherlands the government of the Talysh-Mugan Autonomous Republic in exile was proclaimed[3].
Fakhraddin Aboszoda (Abbasov)
Is one of the leaders of the Talysh national resistance.
64-year-old philosopher, publicist, author of the first in history complete textbook of the Talysh language grammar, former editor of the newspaper “Tolyshi Sado” (“Voice of Talysh”).
In 2008, due to the threat of arrest for political reasons, he left Azerbaijan, moving to the Russian Federation, which granted him a temporary asylum regime, while refusing to recognize him as a political refugee.
In 2019, despite the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation to refuse to satisfy the request of the Republic of Azerbaijan to extradite Aboszoda to the country whose citizenship he previously officially renounced, he was kidnapped from a Russian detention facility, forcibly, without attorneys, taken to court. Further, against his will, on the same day, he was urgently handed over to the representatives of the Azerbaijani special services who had arrived and were waiting in advance, and this was done before the entry into force of the court’s decision. Moreover, Aboszoda was even deprived of the opportunity to bring a protest against the order on his expulsion, which, nevertheless, was later canceled on the basis of a substantiated complaint by his attorney Ruben Kirakosyan[4].
Sentence in Azerbaijan
In the same 2019, in Azerbaijan, Aboszoda was sentenced to 16 years in prison under Articles 281.2 and 283.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan[5] (public appeals directed against the state, committed repeatedly or by a group of individuals, and incitement of national, racial, social or religious hatred and enmity) and was sent to serve his sentence in Gobustan prison.
The court case was heard in closed session, and the text of the sentence in full has not yet been delivered to the convicted human rights defender. Moreover, the full text of the judgment is kept secret even from the Aboszoda and its defenders.
He is currently serving his sentence in the Gobustan closed prison of the penitentiary system of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
According to the Report of the International Federation of Human Rights, about 40 deaths of prisoners were recorded in this colony[6]. The Council of Europe notes that the Gobustan prison has a high level of violence and abuse of prisoners[7].
In the official report of the US State Department on Human Rights in Azerbaijan for 2019, this institution was emphasized three times as a colony with the worst conditions, where methods of cruel treatment of prisoners are practiced[8].
Regarding the situation with Aboszoda, the following expressed their concern in 2019-2020: the Amnesty International[9], the Moscow office of the UNHCR, the representative of the Yezidi minority in the parliament of the Republic of Armenia R. Bakoyan. The Council of Europe Advisory Council on Azerbaijan gave a conclusion on the difficult state in general of the issue of preserving the national identity of the autochthonous peoples of Azerbaijan.
According to Human Rights Watch, “Tightening the Screws. Azerbaijan’s Crackdown on Civil Society and Dissent”[10], a sharp deterioration in the situation with freedom of expression, assembly and association can be traced in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The organization has documented the arrests and imprisonment of prominent figures of opposition political parties, active critics of the government in social networks and participants in political protests.
Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)[11] in 2004[12], 2012[13], 2013[14], 2015, 2016, and in 2017[15] published reports on six of his visits to Azerbaijan. The general conclusion is that torture and other forms of abuse by the police, as well as corruption in the law enforcement system and impunity, are still systematic, widespread and not eradicated in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Amnesty International in a release dated June 8, 2020 notes that F. Aboszoda did not commit any offenses, did not call for violence, exercised his full right to freedom of expression, and therefore must be released from prison[16].
Right to health
According to Part 3, Article 45 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan[17], no one can be subjected to torture and torment, but, according to available information, elderly Aboszoda is being held in a colony for political prisoners, and his health is deteriorating more and more. Also, medical assistance is deliberately not provided to him.
Right to defense
Defense in the Russian Federation
Aboszoda’s attorney in Moscow, Ruben Kirakosyan managed to achieve recognition unlawful judicial decision Lyubertsy City Court about deportation of Aboszoda to Azerbaijan[18]. The current defense is seeking to initiate a criminal case on the fact of his abduction from a pre-trial Detention facility in Russia.
Defense in the Republic of Azerbaijan
The composition of the Baku defenders has changed for the third time, because there is strong political pressure on lawyers so that they do not initiate an appeal to the ECHR. The previous attorney, under pain of consequences, without agreeing with Aboszoda, even withdrew the appeal against the judgment of сourt.
The records and contents of the defense folders after visiting the client are strictly censored.
Defense in Strasbourg
A team of defenders in Strasbourg is working in interests of the elderly scientist, seeking to ensure that he exercises his right to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The state system of execution of punishments of the Republic of Azerbaijan is actively hindering this. For example, for a long time the defenders were unable to obtain a power of attorney from Aboszoda to represent his interests in Strasbourg. As it became known recently, Aboszoda finally managed to sign a power of attorney for the lawyers to represent his interests in the ECHR, but the colony administration continues to obstruct sending the document to Strasbourg under various far-fetched pretexts about the absence of appropriate envelopes, etc.
Recall that Fakhraddin Aboszoda (Abbasov) is already the fourth sentenced leader of Talysh origin. Previous leaders were convicted or died in prisons as a result of inhuman conditions.
We managed to get a text of Aboszoda’s appeal in 2019 to the leaders of countries and peoples of the world, which we are publishing [19].
Coordinating Council of Russian-Armenian Organizations
September 8, 2020
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talysh_people
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talysh-Mughan_Autonomous_Republic
[3] Vluchtelingen Dag krant. — Netherlands, 20.06.2019. — p. 4.
[4] https://miaban.ru/info/russia/aboszoda_4/
[5] https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/az/az017en.pdf
[6] https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/Az465ru.pdf page 22
[7]https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%8B%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D1%82%D1%8E%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%B0#%D0%A3%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B6%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F
[8] “Gobustan Prison… reportedly had the worst conditions,” “Human rights advocates reported guards sometimes punished prisoners with beatings or by holding them in isolation cells. Local and international monitors reported markedly poorer conditions at the maximum-security Gobustan Prison” https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/azerbaijan/
[9] https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/EUR0499852019ENGLISH.pdf
[10] https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/09/01/tightening-screws/azerbaijans-crackdown-civil-society-and-dissent
[11] https://www.coe.int/en/web/cpt/home
[12] https://rm.coe.int/16808c5e1b
[13] https://rm.coe.int/16808c5e1f
[14] https://rm.coe.int/16808c5e21
[15] https://rm.coe.int/16808c5e46
[16] https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/az/az057en.pdf
[17] https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/az/az057en.pdf