Azerbaijan rejects human rights criticism by UN experts

"The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan fully rejects the groundless and biased statement made by a group of UN human rights experts on 20 August 2015.

"The Permanent Mission is deeply concerned that the UN human rights experts without having accurate information regarding the verdict of the court of the first instance, made public statement based on preconceived sources, the statement said.

"Protection of fundamental rights and freedoms and guaranteeing the rule of law for the benefit of its nationals is the priority task of the Government.

"Only individuals having committed concrete criminal acts are brought before justice and all cases are considered in an objective and impartial manner in full compliance with the national legislation, including international commitments of Azerbaijan, the statement said.

"Azerbaijan is firm on the road to building a law-abiding society. One of the basic principles of the rule of law is that people from all walks of life are equal before the law. There is no difference between the citizens committing an offence, regardless even if they proclaim themselves human rights defenders or not. Human rights have nothing to do with permissiveness or providing an indulgence to engage in illegal activities.

"The Permanent Mission condemns the efforts to deliberately misinterpret the essence of the verdict of the court of the first instance that found Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunus guilty on 13 August 2015.

"Leyla Yunusova was sentenced to eight years and five months in prison and Arif Yunusov was sentenced to seven years in prison. Leyla and Arif Yunusovs will serve their sentences in a general-regime correctional labor facility.

"Leyla Yunusova was charged under the articles 274 (high treason), 178.3.2 (fraud (by inflicting major damage)), 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship), 213.2.2 (evasion from a large amount of taxes), 320.1 (forging a certificate or another official document providing rights or exempting from duties, in order to use or sell that document, as well as making for the same purposes or selling forged state awards of Azerbaijan Republic, stamps, seals, forms) and 320.2 (use of deliberately forged documents indicated in the article 320.1 of this Code) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

"Arif Yunusov was charged under the articles 274 (high treason) and 178.3.2 (fraud) of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code.A separate lawsuit was filed for both individuals on the criminal case under article 274 (high treason)."