The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with the organizations International Media Support, IFEX, and the International Senior Lawyers Project submitted an amicus curiaebrief to the European Court of Human Rights in support of a legal complaint by Azerbaijani journalist and human rights advocate Emin Huseynov.
Huseynov, the director and co-founder of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety who is living in exile in Switzerland, lodged a complaint to the European Court in 2015 that argues that the Azerbaijani government illegally stripped him of citizenship in retaliation for his critical views.
The third-party intervention highlights how denationalization is used as a tool of political persecution and how deprivation of citizenship contributes to silencing dissenting voices in Azerbaijan, which is one of the worst jailers of journalists among the Court’s members.
“Azerbaijan is one of the worst jailers of journalists in the world. The repressive techniques that authorities there use against reporters and media activists, including Emin Huseynov and his brother, Mehman, currently jailed for his journalism in Azerbaijan, deserve international condemnation. We urge the Court to rule in favor of Emin Huseynov and send a strong signal that it will not tolerate abusive behaviors by member nations seeking to silence critical voices through means such as denationalization,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia research associate, in the brief.
