Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani official has named the continued military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, occupation of 20 percent of the country’s territories and the results of this invasion as obstacles to Azerbaijan’s fulfillment of its obligations on the protection of human rights.

Khalaf Khalafov, Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister said over 4,000 Azerbaijanis, who went missing in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, are being kept illegally and they have been subjected to various tortures.

He made the remarks as part of the presentation of the fourth periodic report of Azerbaijan on ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’, during the 56th session of the UN Committee against Torture, held on November 11-12 in Geneva, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry reported.

Khalafov in particular noted the case of two Azerbaijani hostages - Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, who have been subjected to tortures and inhuman treatment.

Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev were captured by Armenian special forces in Shaplar village in July 2014 while they were visiting the graves of their relatives. In the same incident, special forces killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov.

Following an expedited “judicial process" last December, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years in jail.

He further said that Azerbaijan attaches importance to the cooperation with UN treaty bodies, and highlighted the adoption and implementation of the National Action Plan on Protection of Human Rights in Azerbaijan, Action Plan on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Development Concept “Azerbaijan 2020: Vision into the Future”.

The committee members praised Azerbaijan’s close cooperation with international organizations and the report envisaging in detail the measures taken for identification of the provisions of the convention in the legislation and implementation of the convention.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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