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US Department of State: Azerbaijani authorities use baseless allegations of terrorism to fight opposition
POLITICS
17.12.2021 | 20:12
In its annual report on the fight against terrorism, the US Department of State said the Azerbaijani authorities are trying to present the political opposition and religious activists as terrorists or to describe their actions as terrorism or extremism, Turan news agency reported.
The published report says that no terrorist acts took place in Azerbaijan. At the same time, it is noted that the country’s law enforcement agencies very arbitrarily describe this or that action as terrorism or extremism, which makes political opponents and religious activists the object of prosecutions, arrests and torture.
“Such people are particularly vulnerable to physical violence by the Interior Ministry’s Organized Crime Unit,” the report said. An example is the case of Niyameddin Ahmedov, a member of the opposition People’s Front party, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for financing terrorism. Ahmedov was arrested in 2020 on charges of violating quarantine rules, which were designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He was later charged with financing terrorism. Human rights organizations consider him a political prisoner, calling the accusation “absurd.”
