In the first circle

The Baku court for serious crimes sentenced the director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy Leila Yunus to the eight and a half years of the colony, and her husband Arif Yunus, who headed the Department of Conflictology and Migration at this NPO, by seven years with confiscation of property. It is reported by haqqin.az.

Leila Yunus was found guilty under articles 178.3.2 (large -scale fraud), 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship), 213.2.2 (tax evasion), 320.1 and 320.2 (falsification of documents) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, Arif Yunus - according to the first of these articles.

During the investigation, both human rights defenders were also imputed Article 274 of the Criminal Code (state treason), which provides for the deadlines up to life. However, the materials under this article were allocated into separate production. Thus, the Yunus spouses will have another court.

As the Caucasian Knot wrote , on August 6, in the debate of the parties, the prosecutor requested a colony for Leila, for Arifa Yunus, 9 years old.

The political prisoners themselves did not admit their guilt, saying that the case against them was falsified. During the investigation, they refused to testify.

Elchin Gambarov, lawyer Leila Yunus, assured that the verdict would certainly be appealed.

The consideration of the case was essentially conducted from July 27. During the proceedings, 60-year-old Yunus has repeatedly fainted due to arterial pressure jumps, and in some cases the judge had to declare breaks in the hearings. At a meeting on August 13, Yunus became bad twice; The second time he lost consciousness after performing with the last word .

Earlier, 59-year-old Leila Yunus was repeatedly reported about health problems. She underwent an operation on the kidneys, suffers from a severe form of diabetes and progressive hepatitis C, and also has serious vision problems. In total, she was done by six operations in front of her eyes. In mid-March, a human rights activist imprisoned in the Baku pre-trial detention center-1 in the village of Kürdakhana was visited by a doctor of the world famous Berlin Clinic Charité . He stated that hepatitis poses the main threat to the life of the political prisoner, and prescribed a number of drugs to her. However, as the lawyer Gambarov noted, these medicines are, firstly, very expensive, and secondly, they are not on sale in Azerbaijan.

Leila Yunus was detained on July 30, 2014 and arrested on the same day. Arifa Yunus was detained on August 5, 2014, when he went on a date with his wife in a pre-trial detention center.

Arif Yunus was contained in the isolator of the Ministry of National Security (MNB), which is known for the systematic use of torture and psychotropic drugs. His wife in a pre-trial detention center was also subjected to pressure from both jailers and morale mercers. On September 23, 2014, Yunus was attacked by an employee of the pre-trial detention center Major Yagubov. He dragged the political prisoner by the hair and, according to Minval.az, beat it on sick kidneys. At the same time, the jailer shouted: "You never wiser?"

Leila Yunus is known as a historian and publicist. In the late 1980s and 1990s, it was published in Russian-speaking emigrant publications "Russian Thought" (France), "Country and Peace" (Germany) and "New Russian Word" (USA). In 1989, she participated in the creation of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan, in 1990-91-a member of the Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan. In May 1992 - February 1993, she headed the information and analytical department of the country's Ministry of Defense.

Yunus founded the Institute of Peace and Democracy in 1995. This NPO is engaged in human rights, research and promoting resolving conflicts. In January 2014, the human rights activist held a presentation of the list of Azerbaijani political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. As of July 8, 2014, the list included 109 names. Yunus also initiated the creation of a resistance center for repressions under Imd. In 2014, the Center made the initiative to apply international sanctions against Azerbaijani officials who violate human rights, and also called for the international boycott of the European Games in Baku, which were held in June 2015, almost a year after the arrest of the Yunus spouses.

Leila Yunus is a member of the Assembly of the World Organization against torture, a participant in peacekeeping initiatives regarding the Karabakh conflict. Awarded the International Prize. Theodore Heker "For Political Courage and Honesty" and the French Order of the Legion of Honor.

Arif Yunus is a candidate of historical sciences, in the past - vice president of the Soviet Association of military historians and weapons. In 1992-1993, he headed the information and analytical apparatus of the President of Azerbaijan Abulfaz Elchibey. Then he worked in various NGOs; Since 1997 - in Imd. Author of hundreds of scientific articles; In the last decade, has released a number of monographs on history and conflictology.

In 2011, the Imd office, which was the private property of Leila Yunus, was demolished. The defeat was preceded by the publication of the human rights activist on the illegal destruction of Baku residents in 2009-2011, as a result of which over 60 thousand citizens were left without housing. In her work, Yunus opened the corruption mechanism, indicating who exactly and how he committed crimes.

In April 2014, the Yunus spouses were questioned in the case of journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov, arrested on charges of treason. Then a search was held in the apartment of human rights defenders and in the office of Imd. Since the end of May, they have repeatedly received calls for interrogations, but human rights activists ignored them, insisting that they were pre -returned to the seized passports and documents for the apartment.

In the last year in Azerbaijan, a number of processes on cases fabricated against opposition and human rights activists were held. All defendants are sentenced to long real terms. So, in April 2015, the head of the NPO "Human Rights Club" Rasul Jafarov received six and a half years of general regime, and the head of the NPO "Society of Legal Enlightenment" Intigam Aliyev - by seven and a half years. The trial of the journalist Mirkadyrov, in the case of which in April 2014, the Yunus spouses were interrogated, has not yet begun; The accused is in jail.

In October 2014, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee awarded 98 political prisoners of Azerbaijan, including the Yunus, Dzhafarov, Aliyev and Mirkadyrov spouses, and the Sakharov Freedom Prize.