An alliance of opposition parties of Azerbaijan issued a statement in connection with “violation of freedom of assembly, police violence and torture in Azerbaijan”, Contact. az reported.

 “After massive police violence and torture of opposition leaders at a rally on October 19, various groups of Azerbaijani society and the international community urged the government of Ilham Aliyev to investigate these facts. However, the behavior of the Azerbaijani government over the past period showed that the authorities did not take these calls seriously,”the statement by the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) said.

Despite the fact that after the rally on October 19, the European Union, the US Embassy in Azerbaijan, the Council of Europe, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch and several other organizations called on official Baku to “ensure freedom of assembly”, “stop police violence” is left unattended.

The opinion expressed by President Ilham Aliyev on November 12 that “great progress has been made in the development of democracy and the protection of human rights in recent years” confirms that he personally sanctioned political repression and massive violations of human rights in the country.

The National Council calls on the people of Azerbaijan to protest publicly against mass violence and torture by the police, and the international community to take a more decisive position in order to encourage official Baku to investigate cases of violence and torture.

The National Council believes that the international community, in particular the USA and the European Union, should introduce targeted sanctions against officials who violate human rights, sanction and use torture in Azerbaijan.