Rasul Guliyev’s Rights Defense Committee’s Statement

Former speaker Rasul Guliyev became an unwanted person by executive branch the government, was exposed to unlawful pressure and persecution and was forced to emigrate from the country and live in exile in the USA because of his demands to end kleptocratic regime that head of government of the time H.Aliyev had established, passing considerable democratic reforms to end grievous socio-economic and socio-political situation the country was in and putting an end to corruption and lack of restraint of bureaucrats, law enforcement and courts; because of his signing of a National Assembly (Milli Mejlis) Resolution about inadequacy of the government in 1995 and because of his other progressive calls.

In spite of many attempts by R.Guliyev, who has been living in the US for the past 16 years, to return to his motherland, participate in presidential and parliamentary elections, officials have prevented him from doing so by fictitious claims, and have even threatened to arrest him.

In general, a number of former speaker R.Guliyev’s rights that are protected by the national law and international treaties and conventions, which include the ones mentioned in –  the 28^th Article of the national Constitution (right of freedom), 31^st Article (the right to live in security), 32^nd Article (the right of private immunity), 52^nd Article (the right of citizenship), 53^rd Article (the guarantee of right of citizenship), 54^th Article (the right to participate in the political life of the government and the society), 56^th Article (the right to participate in elections),  56^th Article (the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty) and 71^st Article (the guarantee of human and citizen rights);the 5^th Article of European Human Rights Convention (the right of freedom and immunity), 2^nd Article of the 4^th Protocol of the Convention (the right to move), 3^rd Article (the prohibition of removing citizens from their country without their consent) and the 1^st Article of the 12^th Protocol of the Convention (the prohibition of discrimination) have been grossly violated by current government officials.

In consideration of the facts mentioned above, we, representatives of social and political organizations, based on the evaluations of the grievous social-economic and social-legal situation of the country and the nation’s interests, guided by the principles of our national constitution and international law, hereby declare that the Committee of Defense of former Speaker R.Guliyev’s rights has been established.

At the same time, the Committee notes with regret that the current government that has been established without the consent of the people – the current ruling clan – have self-appropriated the country’s natural, economic and financial resources by unlawful means; totally criminalized the entire political system, and as a result of this political and legal crisis have created a serious and a real threat to national security and independence of Azerbaijan. Therefore, this committee is calling all of the democratic entities to consolidate and intensify their efforts and activities against the lack of restraint of bureaucrats, law enforcement and courts, the violation of fundamental human rights and liberties, and repression of social-political figures in Azerbaijan.