Sentencing of conscientious objector Mushfiq Mammedov
Use this form to send the letter below to the relevant authority (Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov). You can add your own notes in a separate box after the standard text, if you wish. You must include a name, address, and email address; a copy will be sent to you with a cc to the WRI office (so we have a record of how many email letters have been sent out for this particular case).
I am concerned about the arrest and sentencing of conscientious objector Mushfiq Mammedov.
Mushfiq Mammedov was detained on 10 August 2009 and sentenced one day later, on charges of evading military service (article 321.1). As a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mushfiq Mammedov refuses military service for reasons of conscience.
Mushfiq Mammedov is reportedly being held in the Kurdakhani isolation center and has not been given a lawyer.
He was once detained in 2006 and given a six-month suspended prison term on the same charges.
Azerbaijan is a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights, which both recognise the right to conscientious objection. When Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe, it committed itself to recognise the right to conscientious objection, but this has not happened until now.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee recognised in a decision from January 2007 the right to conscientious objection as a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as guaranteed by Article 18 ICCPR. In fact, in this decision on two cases of conscientious objectors from South Korea, the Human Rights Committee stated that not to provide for the right to conscientious objection is a violation of Article 18 ICCPR (see CCPR/C/88/D/1321-1322/2004 from 23 January 2007).
I therefore urge you to immediately release Mushfiq Mammedov and all imprisoned conscientious objectors. I urge you to respect human rights.
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