Azerbaijani Activist Arif Yunus Released From Jail, But Can’t Leave Baku

Arif Yunus after his release on November 12

BAKU (RFE/RL)”“ Human rights defender Arif Yunus, whose case attracted worldwide attention when he and his wife were arrested in Azerbaijan in 2014 on suspicion of spying for Armenia, has been released from jail due to his deteriorating health.

RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports that the Baku Court of Appeals on November 12 granted Yunus’s release at the request of his lawyers.

In August, Yunus was sentenced by a Baku court to seven years in prison after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion. His wife, Leyla Yunus, was sentenced to 8 1/2 years’ imprisonment on the same charges. Neither has begun serving their sentences, although they remained jailed, and their cases relating to charges of treason are still pending.

Yunus’s legal situation remains unchanged despite his release. Before leaving the courthouse, he was required to sign a document that bars him from leaving Baku.

The sentencing of the couple, both of whom suffer from health problems and worked for the unregistered Peace and Democracy Institute in Baku, were denounced as a travesty of justice by international human rights groups.

The request for Arif Yunus’s release was based on results of a medical examination conducted by German physicians that said his extremely high blood pressure could cause a heart attack.

After leaving the courthouse in Baku, Yunus told journalists that his wife’s medical condition was even worse than his. He said that Leyla Yunus has hepatitis C, diabetes, and kidney stones.

“If they send her to the prison for women, it will kill her,”