Front Line is deeply concerned following information received of unfounded accusations of libel and judicial claims made by the Azerbaijani Minister of the Interior, Ramil Usubov, against Ms Leyla Yunus, a prominent human rights defender and director of the Azerbaijani Institute of Peace and Democracy.

Minister Usubov accused Leyla Yunus of libel against the police and the Ministry of the Interior, following an interview of Leyla Yunus published on 3 December 2008 on the website Day.Az, under the title “In Most Cases the Courts in Azerbaijan Are Passing Illegal and Unwarranted Decisions in Relation to the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms”. In this interview, she claimed that the right to a fair trial was not respected in Azerbaijan, giving examples of trials related to the kidnapping of a girl in 2005, and of two girls, aged 7 and 14, in 2007. The kidnappers were arrested and tried. One of them, Tavakkul Ismailov, said that they had handed over the girls to a head officer in the police department for the purposes of their further trafficking. The Institute of Peace and Democracy was monitoring the trial, and, in her interview, Leyla Yunus stressed the fact that the accused officer was not called to trial right away and the defendants’ accusations of torture in custody were ignored.

The Ministry of the Interior claims that the statement of Leyla Yunus constitutes abuse of freedom of speech in the mass media, violating Article 10 of the Law on the Media, and libel under Article 23 of the Civil Code of Azerbaijan. The Ministry also claimed that the statement has caused moral damages to the “professional reputation of the police” and asked for Leyla Yunus to be fined 100,000 manat (equivalent to 100,000 euro). The court date has been set for 23 January 2009.

Front Line believes that the claim of the Ministry of the Interior against Leyla Yunus is unfounded and is related to the legitimate and peaceful human rights work of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, particularly the monitoring of trials.