A group of Azerbaijani human rights activists has appealed to the UN Human Rights Committee and Amnesty International over the recent arrest of 12 Azerbaijani activists in Iran.
“We, the human rights activists of Azerbaijan, strongly condemn the use of physical force and torture by security forces during the recent protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran, their inhumane treatment and detention as a violation of human rights, and demand their immediate release. and we ask you to support our demand,” the group belonging to the Joint Working Group on Human Rights in Azerbaijan said in a statement published on October 17.
The group expressed concerns over the fate of the activists recently arrested in Iran.
Over 200 Iranian Azerbaijanis were arrested in Iran during pro-Azerbaijani protests amid the war that broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia on 27 September 2020. Most of them were given one-year prison sentences or suspended prison sentences. Iran last week sentenced twelve of its Azeri citizens to a total of 15 years in jail and 888 lashes for pro-Azerbaijani protests held during last year’s Nagorno-Karabakh war.
Parviz Siabi, Hossein Balakhani, Asgar Akbarzadeh, Mostafa Parvin, Sajjad Jolani, Morteza Parvin, Mehdi Hooshmand, Mojtaba Parvin, Hamed Heidari Baris, Mohammad Jolani, Sobhan Bakhshi, and Bahman Khairjoo Azeri activists were handed down 14 months and 32 days in jail in a court hearing held in Iran’s northern Ardabil city on October 11. The activists are charged with resisting police and breaching peace during unauthorized protests held in 2020.
Although holding rallies is forbidden in Iran, mass rallies were organized across Iran with the help of social media during last year’s war. The rallies were held across Iran’s northwestern provinces and even in the capital Tehran during second the Nagorno-Karabakh war. Protesters faced aggressive police responses during rallies and later unfair court sentences.
The appeal was signed by Novella Jafarova, president of the Women’s Rights Association named after D. Aliyeva, Saida Gojamanlı, head of the Human Rights and Rule of Law Bureau, and Saadat Bananyarlı, head of the Azerbaijan branch of the International Human Rights Organization. Avaz Hasanov, Chairman of the Helsinki Civil Society Azerbaijan National Committee, President of the Azerbaijan Human Rights Center Eldar Zeynalov, Azerbaijan Human Rights Center Program Coordinator Zaliha Tahirova and President Mirvari Gahramanlı signed the agreement and Organization for the Protection of the Rights of Oil Workers.
