The International League for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization with consultative status at the United Nations, is gravely concerned about the imprisonment of Fuad Qahramanli, an opposition activist and journalist, who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in November 1998 for having written a article which your government deemed to be a "call to social disorder."

On November 27, 1998, Judge Sevil Mamedova of the Baku city court sentenced Qahramanli under Article 63-1 ("Call to social disorder") of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code. The charges were prompted by an article written by Qahramanli, entitled "The Meeting Tactics of the Opposition." At the time of his sentencing, he had been in detention for nearly six months.

On June 16, 1998, acting upon a tip that guns were allegedly hidden in the Baku offices of the independent newspaper Chag, police from the Ministry of Internal Affairs raided the newspaper's offices. While they did not find any weapons, they did come across Qahramanli's article in draft form. It had yet to be published in any newspaper. Under police pressure to reveal who had written the article, Qahramanli turned himself in the next day. He was immediately arrested and subsequently placed in a pre-trail detention center, where he was held until his sentencing. Only several days after his arrest was the article finally published, in the pro-government newspaper Khalg Gazeta, which ran the story of Qahramanli's opposition activities and printed the article as an example of his allegedly subversive activities.

The League condemns the imprisonment of Fuad Qahramanli as a reprisal for his political activities and his criticism of your government. His imprisonment offers further evidence of your government's crackdown on the opposition since October 1998, which violates international standards of democracy and human rights. We would like to remind you that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression… and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas." The League urges you to use your good offices to see that Fuad Qahramanli is immediately released from prison.

Thank you for your attention. We await your response.

Sincerely,