Election Monitoring and Democracy Education Center (EMDS) has prepared a summary of facts on violations of political rights in Azerbaijan based on information collected from alternative and open sources and information disseminated by human rights organizations and socio-political organizations.
EMDS expresses regret over the deepening political crisis in protecting civil and political rights in Azerbaijan, which has persisted for several years and has notably intensified in 2023.
In the year 2023, instances of criminal prosecution targeting individuals for political reasons have seen a notable rise. The majority of those subjected to criminal charges have consistently been accused under Article 234.4.3 of the Criminal Code, specifically pertaining to the acquisition, transportation, and storage of substantial amounts of narcotics for the propose of sale.
There has been a significant increase in politically motivated administrative arrests throughout the year. The charges most commonly employed in these cases include violations of Articles 510 (petty hooliganism), 535 (disobeying a lawful order of the police), and 388-1.1 (placement of information that is prohibited to be disseminated on the Internet information resource by the owner of the Internet information resource and its domain name or by the user of the information and telecommunications network) of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
EMDS classified the persons subjected to political persecution and arrests as mainly public activists, social media users, journalists, and representatives of political parties and movements, including religious community activists.
You can read the report in detail here.
