Statement of European Movement Azerbaijan on the Arrest of Azeri poets in Iran

Young poets of the Republic of Azerbaijan Farid Huseyn and Shahriyar Hajizada
Visited Tabriz, Iran due to the poetry festival organized by poets union of Guney (south) Azerbaijan on 26 April. They were invited to the ceremony by the head of the union Bahram Surgun. However, they were detained in Iran on 2 may.

Although the number of appeals written by official Baku over the fate of Azeri citizens, Iranian side avoided to provide official respond to Azerbaijan’s repeated notes. In its reply to 4th notes of Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry, Tehran said Farid Huseyn and Shahriyar Hajizada were detained over ``an attempt to commit a crime`. However, detailed information of crime motive was not provided. According to the Press services of Iran, especially “Press TV” which based on English language publication, the two Azerbaijani poets Farid Huseyn and Shahriyar Hajizada were detained in Tabriz on the suspicion of spying attempts on may. According to the Iranian legislation suspicious over the spying cases must be sentenced to death.

As the representative of International European movement in Azerbaijan (European Movement Azerbaijan) we assess the case of detention of Azerbaijani poets in Iran for more than 2 months without providing official information and reasonable facts and failing to give accurate information about their arrest, conditions of their detention to their family and Azerbaijani embassy in Iran, failing to provide lawyer to advocate their rights as the violation of International Human Rights Convention. 

It has to be considered that Farid Huseyn and Shahriyar Hajizada’s visit to Iran took place due to the invitation and as there is no official accusation against them Iranian Government must take relevant steps to release Azerbaijani poets.