The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Azerbaijan.

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about a decision issued yesterday by the Appeals Court of Baku, Azerbaijan, ordering Ms. Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) and a member of OMCT General Assembly, and her husband Mr. ArifYunusov, Head of IPD Conflictology Department, to be forcibly returned to Azerbaijan from the Netherlands in order to participate in new hearings in their case.

The Observatory strongly deplores the May-17 decision of the Baku Court of Appeals, which puts Ms. Leyla Yunus and Mr. ArifYunusov"s physical integrity at serious risk as there are strong reasons to believe that they would be arbitrarily re-arrested upon arrival in Azerbaijan.