Rights activist questions Azeri ombudsman’s activities
Ekho, Baku
23 Sep 04
Prominent Azerbaijani human rights activist Eldar Zeynalov has said
there is “some imbalance” in the activities of ombudsman Elmira
Suleymanova. The imbalance is “connected with protection of state
interests as they are interpreted by the government”, Zeynalov told
Ekho newspaper. The following is the text of R. Orucev’s report by
Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 23 September headlined “A human rights
activist accuses the ombudsman” and subheaded “Eldar Zeynalov comments
on Elmira Suleymanova’s appeal regarding the arrested KLO members”;
subheadings inserted editorially:
Azerbaijan’s ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova has recently sent a letter
to the chairwoman of the Court of Appeal, Qulzar Rzayeva, asking her
to release the convicted members of the Karabakh Liberation
Organization (KLO).
Her letter said that the protesters who took part in the 22 June
action outside the Europe Hotel against visits to Baku by Armenian
officers [for NATO exercises] were people who have lost their health
while defending Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. They have endured
the Xocali tragedy [during military operations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan in Nagornyy Karabakh] which was accompanied by mass
violations of rights of civilians, and have witnessed the cruelty of
the Armenian aggressors against the civilian population, abuse of
their relatives and compatriots who have turned into refugees,
displaced persons and hostages.
“As a result, they could not control their feelings and under the
power of emotions breached the law. Despite instances of hooliganism
and disruption of public order during the protest, the objective of
the participants was to protest at the visit of Armenian officers to
Azerbaijan,” the letter said.
The ombudsman also noted that at present the destiny of the KLO
members who were sentenced to imprisonment is in the focus of
attention of the public which awaits their release. Heeding the public
opinion, appeals by representatives of various parts of the
population, as well as by parents and family members of the convicted,
Suleymanova asked Rzayeva to assess the punishment for the KLO members
in accordance with the offences that they have committed.
First-ever protection of convicted
Prior to this, ombudsman Suleymanova had never allowed herself to
speak out for any citizen who had already been convicted. That is, as
soon as the ombudsman was asked to protect somebody who had already
been convicted, she would say that the judiciary in Azerbaijan was
independent and that she could not put pressure on the court. What
happened this time when Suleymanova all of a sudden directly addressed
the head of the Court of Appeal?
In the course of two days we could not get in touch with Suleymanova
to clarify this issue, even though the head of the ombudsman’s press
service, Zemfira Maharramli, repeatedly recommended Ekho newspaper to
do so. Finally, Maharramli explained her own stance on her boss’s
move. In her words, the actions of Suleymanova are justified because
“the conviction of the KLO members reverberated widely among the
public and politicians. Many NGOs, MPs, and even President [Ilham
Aliyev] himself said that the verdict was too harsh. Hence, the
ombudsman thought it possible to address the head of the Court of
Appeal.”
Ombudsman refuses to intervene
“In this case journalists are fully entitled to verify to what extent
the actions of Suleymanova correspond to the articles of the law ‘On
ombudsman’,” said the prominent Azerbaijani legal expert and director
of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, Eldar Zeynalov. “There are
other trials under way in Azerbaijan. For instance, the case of Elcin
Amiraslanov and members of the OMON [Special Purpose Police
Detachment] has recently passed through the Court of Appeal. Before
that, the court looked into the case of [ex-Defence Minister] Rahim
Qaziyev. The trial of participants in the 2003 October events
[post-election riots in Baku] is under way. And everybody understands
that the ombudsman does not have the right to intervene in the work of
the judges, nor do the ministers, the president or actually anybody
else.”
Zeynalov recalled that the previous responses from Suleymanova were in
the same vein whenever a complaint contained the word “trial”: “Even
if it was not about the trial itself, but about delays in the
proceedings and about foot-dragging. Incidentally, it is the ombudsman
who has the right to intervene in situations when the state bodies are
accused of dragging their feet. But even in those cases Suleymanova
used to always repeat that the judges were independent and she would
not intervene.”
“Imbalance” in ombudsman’s activities
Zeynalov reckons that in general, “there is some imbalance in the
activities of the Azerbaijani ombudsman which is connected with
protection of state interests as they are interpreted by the
government”.
For instance, in the wake of events in Nardaran [in June 2002], when
the village was blockaded and the elders of Nardaran were arrested and
tortured, the villagers officially appealed to Suleymanova and asked
her to influence the situation. But the ombudsman said then that she
did not have the right to intervene and refrained from any
comments. Then there were the October events and Suleymanova allowed
herself to make a political statement condemning the opposition’s
activities. Meanwhile, she did not say a word about the unlawful
actions of the policemen who dispersed the action, Zeynalov said.