Council of Europe withdraws from human rights task force in Azerbaijan
Europe's top human rights watchdog said Wednesday it is withdrawing from a task force with Azerbaijan as the rights situation in the country has "deteriorated dramatically".
"Secretary General Thorbjoern Jagland informed the Committee of Ministers today of his decision to end the organisation's participation in the joint working group on human rights issues in Azerbaijan," the pan-European Council of Europe said in a statement.
The working group is made up of government officials, members of parliament and human rights activists.
"Since October 2014, a Council of Europe representative had been attending meetings in Baku intended to revive the dialogue between civil society and Azerbaijani authorities.
"Despite this initiative, the overall situation of human rights defenders in the country has deteriorated dramatically."
It said growing numbers of human rights defenders have been imprisoned and that the Council of Europe has received reports of "unacceptable detention conditions."
Among the members of the working group was the country's most prominent investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist, Khadija Ismaylova, who was condemned to seven and a half years in prison last month on corruption charges she denounced as trumped-up.
Rights groups say the government of the oil-rich Caucasus nation has stepped up pressure on critical journalists and political opponents since President Ilham Aliyev's election for a third term in 2013.
Aliyev strongly denies rights abuses and recently threatened to "revise" relations with the European Union over criticism on the issue.
He took over in 2003 after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled newly independent Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993.
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