Azerbaijan: Lengthy sentences for Anar Mammadli and other independent voices point to the shocking scale of the crackdown on dissent
Reacting to the 13-year prison sentence handed down to prisoner of conscience and human rights defender Anar Mammadli, following the lengthy prison sentences imposed on nine defendants in the Toplum TV case, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:
“Anar Mammadli has been condemned to spend thirteen years behind bars for ‘crimes’ he did not commit. His conviction follows an unfair trial in which his rights were brazenly violated, mirroring the treatment of the nine defendants in the Toplum TV case, who were also handed lengthy prison sentences.”
“These convictions demonstrate that journalists and other critics who expose government abuses and challenge the interests of President Ilham Aliyev’s family are severely punished”.