Azeri civil activist says PACE co-rapporteurs on Azerbaijan corrupt

PanARMENIAN.Net - Co-rapporteurs of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Azerbaijan Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) and Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC) are reluctant to acknowledge human rights violations in Azerbaijan, human rights advocate, director of Azeri Institute for Peace and Democracy said.

Leyla Yunus says the rapporteurs pursue personal goals, after being bribed by Azerbaijani government. She cited preliminary report on the situation in Azerbaijan, and meeting with rapporteurs as grounds for her allegations.

According to Yunus, the OSCE representatives have ignored all of the materials on human rights violations in Azerbaijan, preferring to exclude them from their preliminary report.

"The document seems to have been written in Azeri presidential administration. In particular, the facts of death from torture in prison of the National Security Ministry of Nakhchivan Turac Zeynalov, torture of Nakhchivan’s activist Zeynal Bagirzade, and tortures of two journalists of the "Khayal" TV channel have not been included the report. The detainment of journalists Avaz Zeynalli and Anar Bayramli, beatings and harassment of Idrak Abbasov and Khadija Ismailova were not included in the report, either,” Yunus said.

Yunus said that an appeal on lack of confidence in rapporteurs has been filed to PACE on behalf of 20 civil society activists, contact.az reported.