Human Rights Watch issued a statement  calling on Azerbaijani authorities to end harassment against prominent human rights defender.

"Azerbaijani authorities are harassing and engaging in oppressive tactics against a prominent human rights defender. The Azerbaijani government should end the harassment against rights defender Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif," says the statement issued by the organization.

Azerbaijan’s international partners, in particular fellow members of the Council of Europe, should make clear that continued harassment of human rights defenders, and the Yunuses in particular, will affect their relationships with Azerbaijan’s government.

The authorities should immediately return the Yunuses’ passports and stop the arbitrary interference with their freedom of movement and right to leave their country, Human Rights Watch said. There is no provision in Azerbaijani law to bar people who are designated witnesses in a criminal investigation from leaving the country.

On May 15, Azerbaijan will take over the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Europe, Europe’s foremost human rights body. The body’s secretary-general, Thorbjorn Jagland, should express urgent concern about harassment of the Yunuses and the treatment of Mirgadirov, as well as the wider crackdown on civic activists and journalists under way for the past year in Azerbaijan, which has intensified in recent months.

Azerbaijan has a long history of using bogus charges to imprison its critics, including on treason charges, Human Rights Watch said.