Ilgar Mammadov has been in prison since 2013. Source: Meydan.tv. All rights reserved.As Azerbaijanis go to the polls today for a problematic constitutional referendum, the country is in the midst of an unprecedented human rights crackdown — again. Or, more fittingly, still. Having locked up the country’s most prominent critics, all but extinguished the political opposition, established nearly total control of the media, and paralysed independent civil society, president Ilham Aliyev is now poised to consolidate power through a vote expected to serve as a serious blow to any remaining vestiges of democracy in Azerbaijan.
Since Aliyev came to power in 2003, he has overseen wave after wave of repression, targeting one group of critics after another with increasing frequency and intensity as the years have progressed. The human rights situation in the country has been especially dire since 2009, when the two-term presidential limit was removed by constitutional referendum. This move paved the way for Aliyev’s re-election to a third term in office via a seriously flawed vote in 2013.
In the run-up to the October 2013 presidential election, the Azerbaijani authorities worked particularly aggressively to silence criticism and dissent. They firmly quashed a series of pro-democracy protests in early 2013, using excessive force to disperse the peaceful actions, and detaining dozens of protesters. The period was described as Azerbaijan’s “hot January”, and led to months of targeting of activists involved with those protests and others deemed to be a threat to the regime. Azerbaijan’s jails swelled with new cases of political prisoners — among them Ilgar Mammadov, leader of the opposition Republican Alternative (REAL) movement, who was arrested in March 2013.
