The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has decided to award the Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award 2014 to the political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Secretary General of Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) Bjorn Engesland said, “They exhibit great courage and make huge efforts in promoting dignity, democratic values and human rights in their home country.” Because there are so many political prisoners currently languishing in Azerbaijani detention centers, NHC has decided to award all of them.
Among the 98 political prisoners there are 13 journalists and bloggers, 10 human rights defenders and other civil society actors and lawyers, nine youth activists, a key opposition leader and many other opposing voices and religious activists.
Azerbaijan, in recent years, has been using a heavy hand against human rights activists or anyone with a dissenting opinion. Perhaps the most prominent among the political prisoners is Leyla Yunus, an avid human rights defender and peace activist. She, along with her husband Arif Yunus were detained on July 30 and charged with a number of crimes, the most serious among them treason, which foresees a life sentence. Anar Mammadli who headed Azerbaijan’s most respected organization of election observation, was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment in May of this year. He was allegedly imprisoned for his critical reports of the elections. Bashir Suleymanli, his deputy was also convicted. Rasul Jafarov, a jurist actively involved in combatting assaults against journalists was detained in August and continues to be imprisoned. He was one of the most active human rights defenders in the country; he was actively involved in the Sing for Democracy campaign during the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest that took place in Baku.
The Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award was established in 1980 by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, with the consent and support of Andrei Sakharov. The objective of the award is to assist and support those who are imprisoned or persecuted because of their opinions, beliefs or conscience. The first Sakharov Freedom Award was awarded in 1984.
Past recipients include the Russian election monitoring organization Golos, led by Lilia Shibanova in 2012, renowned human rights defender Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Kazakhstani human rights defender Evgeniy Zhovtis and Svetlana Gannushkina from Russia.
The Sakharov Freedom Award 2014 will be awarded at a ceremony in Oslo on November 13.