16 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 The case of Rafig Taği and Samir Sadagatoğlu (update to AI Index: EUR 01/001/2007) On 4 May journalist Rafig Taği and editor Samir Sadagatoğlu of the independent newspaper Senet (Art) were sentenced to three and four years’ imprisonment respectively under Article 283.1 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code (incitement of national, racial or religious hatred). The charges related an article published in the newspaper in November 2006 entitled ‘Europe and Us’, in which it was claimed that Islam had hindered Azerbaijan’s economic and political development. The article did not advocate violence. Human rights activists intimidated AI received reports of the harassment of human rights activists, which they believed was directed at intimidating them in order to curtail their activities for human rights. On 18 April Javid Aliəv, the son of Akifa Aliəva, Gəncə coordinator for the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, was stopped by traffic police for hanging a curtain in the back window of his car. When Javid Aliəv asked the policemen to refrain from using obscene language and to identify themselves, he was arrested on grounds of resisting the police. His family were not informed of the arrest, nor was Javid Aliəv permitted to call his family. On 19 April he was sentenced to three days’ imprisonment at a hearing during which he was not permitted access to a lawyer. Akifa Aliəva had received threats from police officers in 2006 that her human rights activism was putting her children in danger; two days before her son’s arrest she had submitted a report on human rights violations to the United States embassy in Azerbaijan. The Yeni Fikir case (update to AI Indexes: EUR 01/017/2006, EUR 55/004/2006 and EUR 01/001/2007) A presidential decree annulled the five year suspended sentence given to Said Nuri, a member of the Yeni Fikir (New Idea) youth Amnesty International movement arrested on 12 September 2005 on charges of conspiring to violently overthrow the Azerbaijan government. In June, the father of Yeni Fikir leader Ruslan Başirli, sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on the same charge in July 2006, claimed that his son was being subjected to mental and physical abuse in prison. Allegations of torture and other illtreatment National Committee presents findings against Torture According to the annual report issued by the non-governmental organization the National Committee against Torture on 6 February, 10 people died of torture and illtreatment in Azerbaijan in 2006, while a further 43 cases of torture and ill-treatment were documented by the organization. No instances of disciplinary action other than the demotion of some officials involved in cases of torture and ill-treatment were recorded in the report. Some improvements were noted, however, in the standards of food, medical treatment and living conditions of prisoners administered by the Ministry of Justice.# Allegations of torture not investigated as trial of three minors reached conclusion (update to AI Index: EUR 55/007/2007) On 18 June the Court of Grave Crimes sentenced teenagers Dmitri Pavlov, Maksim Genashilkin and Ruslan Bessonov, charged with the murder of another teenager Vusal Zeynalov, to 10 years’ imprisonment in a strict regime prison, after an unfair trial. The three boys continued to deny the charge. The verdict attributed primary responsibility to Dmitri Pavlov, despite the fact that witnesses providing an alibi for him had testified during the trial. According to the boys’ families, both Dmitri Pavlov and Maksim Genashilkin had been beaten by Procuracy officials in the days preceding the hearing and bore bruises on their faces AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007