Azerbaijan angry at diplomats' calls to free jailed rights activists

5/12/2024 17:08

        Azerbaijan has accused Western diplomats of unacceptable interference in its judicial system after they called for the release of jailed human rights activists.
        The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reacted within hours of the diplomats' comments at an event on Wednesday evening where they said the country's record on rights and free speech had worsened in the past year.
        
        U.S. Ambassador Mark Libby reeled off a list of names of detained individuals he described as "people fighting for human rights in their beautiful homeland."
        "I call on the Azerbaijani authorities to release these and all others unjustly arrested and fulfil their international human rights obligations," he said, adding his voice to similar statements by the British, Swiss and EU ambassadors.
        
        In a late night post on X, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded: "These statements are an open attempt to undermine the independent judicial system in Azerbaijan."
        
        It added: "Interference in the course of an investigation is unacceptable and interference in the judicial process contradicts the principle of the rule of law, the fundamental principle of a law-based state."