The Azerbaijani activist who documented political prisoners, until she became one
By M.S. | LONDON
LEYLA YUNUS did not win the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought this year—it went to Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist who has battled sexual violence against women—but she was one of the three finalists. That gives me an excuse to write about her, and to put it bluntly, she needs the attention. Ms Yunus is one of Azerbaijan's leading civil society activists, known among other things for documenting the government's forced evacuations of Baku residents to make way for gleaming new oil-financed real-estate developments. Since July 30 she has been in jail, accused by prosecutors of the fanciful-sounding charge of spying for Armenia. Her real offence appears to have been angering the government of president Ilham Aliev.
During a visit to Brussels early this year, Mr Aliev claimed that his country had no political prisoners. Ms Yunus and fellow activist Rasul Jafarov responded by publishing a list of such prisoners on the internet, which (as of its last update in early July) totaled 109 names, including one of Mr Aliev's chief political rivals. (This may help explain why Mr Aliev won re-election last year with 85% of the vote, without running a campaign.) As a result of their activities, Ms Yunus and Mr Jafarov are now eligible to be included on their own list of political prisoners. (Mr Jafarov was arrested on August 2.) Meanwhile, this spring, Ms Yunus launched a citizen diplomacy initiative, inviting Azerbaijanis and Armenians to talk about how to end their countries' 25-year-long frozen conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. That initiative is the basis of the government's treason accusations, which international human rights organisations term absurd. Other Azerbaijani civil society groups have faced an intensifying crackdown in recent months.
"I think the Azerbaijan government took advantage of the world's attention being focused on Ukraine and on Ebola, so they decided to cut off the last voices of civil society," says Ms Yunus's daughter Dinara. Dinara, who was granted political asylum in the Netherlands five years ago, says her mother was transferred from a regular prison to an isolated Security Ministry detention centre on October 20. Her father, the historian Arif Yunus, is held at the same facility, after being arrested August 5. He has been charged with treason, as well. Both elder Yunuses suffer from medical conditions, and Leyla Yunus has told her lawyer of being beaten, both by prison guards and by a cellmate. Dinara says she is unsure whether her parents are receiving their medications in the Security Ministry prison; she has not been able to communicate with them.
Even as it tightens the screws on the opposition and civil society, Azerbaijan remains a member in good standing of the Council of Europe, and indeed currently holds that group's rotating presidency. The secretary general of the Council (a 47-member body not to be confused with the European Union) has called on Azerbaijan to free Ms Yunus, and this week sent a monitor to Baku to a meeting of Azerbaijani human-rights groups and members of parliament pushing for her release; the Council's human rights commissioner also visited Baku this week and met with Ms Yunus.* The European Parliament's human rights committee, which awards the Sakharov prize, says it will send a delegation to Azerbaijan to meet with Ms Yunus and "support [her] in her fight for democracy and freedom in her country."
Mr Aliev may or may not take notice of those delegations. Azerbaijan has grown fantastically wealthy on oil revenues over the past 25 years. The international petroleum majors who extract 80% of the country's oil, including BP, might carry more weight in Baku, and Ms Yunus's family have called on BP to pressure the government to release her. Dinara Yunus is unsure what tactics would help get her mother released, but she is convinced that gentle suasion will not. "Governments like to go with silent diplomacy, but as we see, it only makes things worse," she says. "If someone speaks out loudly at a high level, a president or prime minister, maybe it will change something." It seems worth a shot.
* This post initially stated that the Council of Europe had not interceded on Ms Yunus's behalf. As demonstrated by the visits, the council is pressing for her release. Also, the European Court of Human Rights, a body of the Council of Europe, ruled on October 13 that Azerbaijan's detention of Ilgar Mammadov, the political rival of Mr Aliev mentioned above, violates the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council's secretary general, Thorbjorn Jagland, has urged Azerbaijan to release Mr Mammadov immediately.
