The Human Rights House Network took this opportunity to raise some pressing issued in Eastern Europe and Caucasus and gather support for three appeals.

In the first appeal, addressed to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus, Sergei Sidorsky, and to the Colonel-General Leonid Maltsev, we expressed our concerns with the conscription of civil and political youth activists. We have noticed a trend in Belarus where youth activists, previously declared unfit for military service on medical grounds, are nevertheless conscripted in retaliation for their civic and political activism.

We strongly urged the Belarusian government to abide by the legal requirements pertaining to the conscription of persons to the military service and to discontinue the use of military service as a means of political persecution.
This appeal was supported by 83 people.

In the second appeal, addressed to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, we called upon the release of the Chechen woman Zara Murtazalieva, who has been detained and imprisoned in Moscow since January 2004. Zara Murtazalieva was sentenced to 8,5 years imprisonment for preparing a terror act in Moscow and for illegal purchase and possesion of explosives.

According to several human rights organisations, however, Murtazalieva’s case was fabricated; several witnesses were forced to testify against her.
This appeal was supported by 79 people.

In the third appeal, addressed to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, we expressed concern with the deteriorating situation of press freedom in Azerbaijan. The press freedom situation has been in severe decline since the election of President Ilham Aliyev in October 2003, according to Reporter Freedom and Safety Azerbaijan (IRFS). Aliyev’s government fails to prosecute individuals who violate the rights of journalists and implement policies to cultivate a free and transparent media environment. Defamation remains a crime in Azerbaijan for which journalists can be imprisoned, despite calls by the local and international community for its decriminalization.

In the context of these challenges to the overall freedom of expression situation in Azerbaijan, we called on the authorities to solve the murder of Elmar Huseynov, end the impunity for individuals who violate the rights of journalists and commit acts of violence against journalists, decriminalise defamation, and release the country’s wrongfully imprisoned journalists.
This appeal was supported by 77 people.

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