[JURIST] The US Department of State [official website] (DOS) released a statement [text] Thursday condemning the imprisonment of human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev and calling for his release. Aliyev was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and a three-year ban from holding public office for on charges of illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion and abuse of power. The DOS statement also called the charges “questionable,” while Aliyev himself called them “politically motivated.” Aliyev is one of the country’s most well-known human rights lawyers and head of the Legal Education Society [advocacy website] and worked to defend the rule of law in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev’s lawyer released a statement [JURIST report] after his arrest in 2011, saying, “his detention was connected with his activity as human rights defender, and the purpose of this is to silence him down, based on a political instruction from above.” Charges have also been brought against other activists in the recent past. Earlier this month Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [JURIST report] the conviction of leading human rights activist Rasul Jafarov by a court in Azerbaijan and called for his immediate release. In February the detention of Azeri human rights activist Leyla Yunus, held without trial since July, was extended an additional five months [JURIST report]. Yunus was reportedly working on the comprehensive list of politically motivated arrests in Azerbaijan with Rasul Jafarov