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Today, a court in Azerbaijan sentenced Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus to many years in prison. They are long-time civil society actors. Their sentencing today is a symbol of the targeted repression against leading civil society voices in Azerbaijan since the presidential election of October 2013.

The Sport for Rights coalition resolutely condemns the brutal murder of Azerbaijani journalist Rasim Aliyev, who died on 9 August in a Baku hospital, after he was severely beaten on 8 August by a group of people. Rasim Aliyev had reported receiving continuous threats and intimidation via social media networks for three weeks leading up to his death.

Anniversary of human rights defender’s arrest marks one year of unprecedented repression in Azerbaijan.

On July 24, 2015 Baku Court on Grave Crimes held pre-trial session into the case of Khadija Ismaylova, Azerbaijan investigative journalist. The three member court collegium considered motions of the parties. Not everybody could attend the session due to small space in the court room and high number of attendees.

On July 15, Baku Court on Grave Crimes held hearing into the cases of Leyla and Arif Yunus, famous couple of Azerbaijan human rights defenders. Leyla is charged for illegal entrepreneurship, evasion from payment of taxes, fabrication of documents and swindle. The last charge is imposed on her husband too. The prosecutor’s office blames them in high treason too, though it is a separate case and preliminary investigation is still going on.

95 lawyers from 24 countries call for the immediate and unconditional release of human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev. He has been in jail in Azerbaijan since 8 August 2014.

The European Olympic Games hosted in Baku ended on a note different from the expected glamour the authorities aimed at: the United Nations and the Council of Europe called upon Azerbaijan to put an end to the suppression of civil society and the international attention on the country served to highlight human rights violations.

Event at the June session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan, one year after President Ilham Aliyev came to Strasbourg and spoke at the Assembly.

Early Saturday morning, the Azerbaijani human rights defender Emin Huseynov landed in Switzerland, after spending over 10 months at the Swiss Embassy in Baku, where he was hosted for humanitarian reasons. He is free and safe.