CAT/C/40/D/309/2006 Page 6 relation to election rigging, and journalists critical of the current regime are under constant threat from the authorities, including attacks, abuse and physical violence. However, no such journalists (listed by the lawyer) have left the country. The State party adds that the Musavat party is officially registered and legal and that party membership is not considered to be a criminal offence. It only won five of the 125 seats in the parliamentary elections in November 2005, and thereby lost much of its position as one of the major opposition parties in Azerbaijan. Thus, the State party questions whether the authorities would take a strong interest in the political activities of the Musavat party members. 4.5 With regard to the general situation concerning human rights in Azerbaijan today, the State party points to its membership of the Council of Europe and the fact that Azerbaijan has ratified several major human rights instruments, including the Convention against Torture. It submits that Azerbaijan has made progress in the field of human rights and in this regard refers to the punishment of around 100 police officers for human right abuses in 2006, the establishment of the institution of a national ombudsman and a new action plan for the protection of human rights was announced by President Aliyev in December 2006. The State party submits that it does not wish to underestimate the legitimate concerns that may be expressed with respect to its human rights record and notes reports of human rights abuses, including arbitrary detentions and incidents of beating and torture of persons in custody by the security forces, particularly of prominent activists, and concern for the freedom of the media and the freedom of expression, in particular with respect to journalists. However, it shares the view of the Migration Board that the situation in Azerbaijan at present does not warrant a general need for protection for asylum seekers from that country. 4.6 The State party acknowledges that the situation for journalists in Azerbaijan is a cause for concern. However, the situation is not such that the mere fact that an asylum seeker is a professional journalist and criticized the current regime in past articles published in Azerbaijan, would suffice to establish a possible violation of article 3. In this regard, it submits that R. K. has not been politically active or had articles published in Azerbaijan since he left the country at the end of September 2004. Complainants’ comments on the State party’s observations 5.1 On 10 December 2007, the complainants submit that it was the witness statement R. K. gave on 16 September 2004, which finally “made the authorities want to get rid of him” and the reason the entire family fled the country. R. K. was threatened by employees from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Security. They had no opportunity to enforce the threats, as there were a lot of people outside the court room when he left. He understood that it would just be a matter of time before the threats would be enforced. The reason he was not arrested for his activities on 15 and 16 October 2003, was because the authorities feared to attract international attention. He was in the headquarters of the newspaper with several international observers during the incident, while those outside were being physically abused or arrested. The authorities had already received a lot of bad press following the incident in question and were only waiting for an appropriate moment to make him “disappear”. 5.2 As to the report from the Swedish embassy in Ankara, the complainants highlight the confirmation that R. K. was a member of the Musavat party and worked as a journalist for the affiliated newspaper, the Yeni Musavat. Furthermore, it refers to the fact that, as mentioned in the report, the Musavat party is,“in constant trouble with the authorities”, and that