U.S. to apply sanctions on Azerbaijan unless human rights situation changed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Head of the Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress Chris Smith on Monday, July 4 said that if repressions in Azerbaijan didn’t stop, sanctions against the country would inevitably be applied, Contact.az reports.

At an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly hearing in Tbilisi, the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan was discussed, followed with a speech by Smith, who is the author of the bill act of democracy in Azerbaijan providing for sanctions against high-ranking officials involved in human rights violations.

"Twice in 2013 and 2014 with a group of congressmen and senators I met with [Azeri President Ilham] Aliyev in Baku. We, of course, talked about fundamental human rights, freedom of the press and of speech," said Smith.

He praised the release of some of the political prisoners, noting, however, that the practice of arbitrary arrest with violence hadn’t stopped in the country.

Smith also rejected the accusations of official Baku that his bill was influenced by the Armenian lobby.

The act of democracy in Azerbaijan is similar to the same act adopted previously in relation to Belarus and its President Lukashenko.