Azerbaijani human rights defender Leyla Yunus released
Being under arrest for a year and a half, Azerbaijani human rights defender Leyla Yunus is placed on supervised release.
Leyla Yunus has been under arrest since July 2014 and she is accused of tax evasion and forgery and has been tried with a request of 8 years of prison sentence.
Leyla Yunus’ health deteriorated in prison and her lawyers appealed for supervised release.
Her husband Arif Yunus, who was accused of the same crimes with Leyla Yunus, was released on November.
After the arrestment of Leyla Yunus, who is the Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, human rights defenders and activists in Azerbaijan and international human rights organizations protested this ruling and they claimed that the government tries to silence Leyla Yunus who has been criticizing the policies of the government.
