LAWSUIT DROPPED AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER LEYLA YUNUS

UNCLAS BAKU 000168

DEPT FOR EUR/CARC

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM ECON KBIO AJ
SUBJECT: LAWSUIT DROPPED AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER LEYLA YUNUS


1. (SBU) The Minister of Internal Affairs dropped his lawsuit
against human rights defender Leyla Yunus scheduled at the Yasamal
District Court. The hearing, the first since the trial was moved
from the Nasimi District Court, was set to start at 11:00 a.m. on
March 2. The announcement about the withdrawal came from the lawyer
of Leyla Yunus, Isakhan Ashurov, who was at the meeting with the
judge to discuss the case before it started. Representatives of the
international community, media, and civil society were waiting
outside to be invited into the room for the hearing. However,
before the hearing started, Isakhan Ashurov came out and announced
that the lawsuit was being dropped so no trial would take place.


2. (SBU) In a telephone conversation with an Embassy official,
Leyla Yunus said that she would not make any public statement for
the media before seeing the written court decision. She mentioned
the verdict would be passed to her on March 3 by her lawyer.


3. (SBU) As a statement for the U.S. Embassy only, Yunus said that
the decision of dropping the case against her is a result of
international pressure put on the Ministry of Internal Affairs since
the lawsuit had been filed. She stated that during one of the
meetings between officials from the Ministry and her lawyer, the
Ministry officials said that there were too many appeals and letters
coming to them and their number was constantly growing. Ministry
officials asked the lawyer to stop asking for letters, as they were
considering dropping the lawsuit. Yunus believes that this
information proves the effectiveness of support and attention coming
from the international community.

Derse