Intiqam Kamil oglu Aliyev (sometimes also spelled Intigam) (born 30 November 1962, Pushkin (now Bilasuvar), Azerbaijan SSR) is a human rights defender and lawyer in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. Along with other human rights activists, Aliyev was jailed in mid-2014 as part of a country-wide crackdown. In April 2015 the court sentenced him to 7.5 years in jail. Aliyev's arrest is widely considered to have been politically motivated. Aliyev had previously brought a number of cases against Azerbaijani authorities to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

. Prior to his arrest, Aliyev ran the Legal Education Society (LES). On 22 April 2015, he was sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment. He was found guilty of large-scale embezzlement and fraud, illegal business and

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

. He was considered a prisoner of conscience by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. On 28 March 2016, the Supreme Court ordered his release and he was freed same day. On 28 March 2016, Supreme Court of Azerbaijan changed his prison sentence from seven years and six months to a five-year suspended sentence.

Awards

* 2012: the

Homo Homini Award The Homo Homini Award (Latin: "A human to another human") is given annually by the Czech human rights organization People in Need to "an individual in recognition of a dedication to the promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solutions ...

for his work on human rights;He was chosen as the best human rights defender of 2012. * 2014 (October): the

Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award The Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award, officially known as the Sakharov Freedom Award and named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdr ...

of the

Norwegian Helsinki Committee The Norwegian Helsinki Committee (''Den norske Helsingforskomité'') is a Norwegian human rights non-governmental organization based in Oslo. It was founded in 1977 following the adoption of the Helsinki Accords. It works to ensure that human right ...

, together with

Leyla Yunus Leyla Islam qizi Yunusova (née Vəliyeva; born 21 December 1955, in Baku), better known as Leyla Yunus, is an Azerbaijani human rights activist who serves as the director of Institute of Peace and Democracy, a human rights organisation. She is ...

Rasul Jafarov Rasul Jafarov ( az, Rəsul Ağahəsən oğlu Cəfərov; born August 17, 1984) is a lawyer and prominent human rights defender in Azerbaijan. In April 2015, he was sentenced to six and a half years’ imprisonment. He was considered a prisoner o ...

and other political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Since he was in jail, the award was received by his children. * 2015 (October): Human Rights Award, of the

International Bar Association The International Bar Association (IBA), founded in 1947, is a bar association of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. The IBA currently has a membership of more than 80,000 individual lawyers and 190 bar associat ...

, for outstanding contribution to human rights. Since he was in jail, the award was received by his children. * 2016 (February): Human Rights Award, of the

Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) is an association gathering together bar associations of 32 countries in Europe (those of the European Union, of the European Economic Area and of Switzerland), The United Kingdom, and an ad ...

(CCBE), for devoting "his life to protecting the rights of individuals against the repressive system of the Azerbaijani government" and providing for decades a "legal assistance and representation to the politically persecuted". Since he was in jail, the award was received by his children. * 2016: Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award,

Civil Rights Defenders Civil Rights Defenders (Formerly the Swedish Helsinki Committee) is an international non-governmental organisation based in Stockholm, Sweden that does human rights work with a focus on civil and political rights. They primarily work to support lo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aliyev, Intiqam Azerbaijani human rights activists Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Azerbaijan 1962 births Living people Lawyers from Baku Baku State University alumni Azerbaijani prisoners and detainees 20th-century Azerbaijani lawyers 21st-century Azerbaijani lawyers