1. Anar Mammadli is a prominent human rights activist in Azerbaijan.
14 Facts About Anar Mammadli
1. 2.
Anar Mammadli is active in observing and monitoring elections, and he has repeatedly criticized the conduct of elections by Azerbaijani authorities.
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On 16 December 2013, Mammadli was arrested and jailed, following outspoken criticism of presidential elections in October 2013.
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In spite of international protests, Anar Mammadli was sentenced to more than 5 years in jail in May 2014.
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On 29 September 2014, while still in detention, Anar Mammadli was awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which honours "outstanding" action in defence of human rights.
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Anar Mammadli was born in 1978 in Yevlax, an industrial city in the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic.
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Anar Mammadli was raised in a typical Soviet family; his father was a civil servant who worked in a factory and was active in the labour union, while his mother was employed as a social worker.
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Anar Mammadli's childhood coincided with the outbreak of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the late 1980s.
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In 2001, Anar Mammadli participated in setting up the Election Monitoring Center.
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Anar Mammadli's organization is a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, European Platform for Democratic Elections, Network of Parliament Monitoring Organizations and the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership Program of the European Union, and Anar Mammadli participated in numerous election observations internationally.
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On 26 May 2014, Anar Mammadli was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months by the decision of Baku Grave Crimes Court.
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Anar Mammadli was charged with illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, abuse of official authority to influence on the results of election, charges rejected by Anar Mammadli and his lawyers.
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In September 2014, Anar Mammadli was awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
14.
On 17 March 2016, after almost 2.5 years in prison, Anar Mammadli was pardoned by the president of Azerbaijan, along with a number of high profile political prisoners.