Azerbaijan Before climate conference: activists criticize arrests

In the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in November, human rights organizations in the authoritarian South Caucasus republic of Azerbaijan are complaining about an intensification of the crackdown on dissidents.

According to a joint report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Freedom Now, the government has cracked down harder on critics in the past two years and had dozens arrested. "The Azerbaijani government disregards civil rights and ensures that there are hardly any independent groups and critical media left," said Giorgi Gogia, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at HRW.

According to the information, dozens of people were arrested in the oil and gas-rich country on the Caspian Sea on fabricated and politically motivated charges. HRW and Freedom Now documented 33 cases in which critics were prosecuted, detained and harassed.

Civil rights activists arrested

According to the report, human rights activist Anar Mammadli is among those detained. Before his arrest, he had co-founded an initiative for climate justice. It was supposed to campaign for civil rights and climate justice in Azerbaijan ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference. The reason for the arrest was alleged smuggling of counterfeit money.

According to the organizations, they interviewed more than 40 lawyers, relatives of detainees and employees of non-governmental organizations for the report.

The World Climate Conference is scheduled to open in the capital Baku on November 11 and last until November 22. Azerbaijan is internationally criticized for human rights violations and the repression of dissent and is also an important energy supplier for the countries of the European Union.

SDA