Azerbaijan on Wednesday released top rights campaigner Leyla Yunus from prison because of her deteriorating health, less than a month after freeing her activist husband.

The move came a day after the authorities arrested a prominent opposition figure on incitement charges, in the latest government move to crack down on dissenters.

At a hearing in the capital Baku, an appeals court judge handed the award-winning Yunus a suspended sentence of five years after throwing out the initial eight-and-a-half year jail term, an AFP correspondent said.

Yunus, 59, who suffers from a number of ailments including hepatitis C and diabetes, had spent more than 16 months behind bars.

Looking haggard and pale, she staggered out of the courtroom immediately after the verdict was announced.

"They've reduced me to prison dust," she told reporters outside her house, saying she had gone directly from the court to visit her grandfather's grave.

Her defence team said they disagreed with the suspended sentence and would likely appeal.

"We had sought Leyla's full acquittal and will probably appeal the verdict," her lawyer Elchin Sadykhov told AFP.

- 'Prisoners of conscience' -

The EU described her release as a "welcome and positive humanitarian gesture" and said it hoped "further steps" would follow.

"We are ready to further deepen and broaden our relations with Azerbaijan," it said in a statement.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby also welcomed Yunus' release as "a positive step".

Yunus, head of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, one of the leading rights groups in the tightly-controlled country, was jailed in August on charges that include fraud and tax evasion.

Her 60-year-old husband Arif Yunus, who was sentenced to seven years in prison on similar charges, was released in November -- also because of poor health.

The couple and their supporters have rejected the charges as politically motivated.

Leyla Yunus complained in September 2014 that she had been severely beaten by prison guards in a pre-trial detention centre.

International rights groups have slammed the prosecution of the couple as an attempt by Azerbaijan's authorities to prevent them from continuing their work.

"Today's conditional release of Leyla Yunus... should be followed by immediately and unconditionally setting all prisoners of conscience free," Amnesty International said.

The couple however also face treason charges in a separate case after being arrested last year on suspicion of spying for arch-foe Armenia.

- Crackdown -

Rights groups say the Azeri government has stepped up pressure on critical journalists, rights activists, and opponents since strongman President Ilham Aliyev's re-election for a third term in 2013.

Aliyev took over in 2003 after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer and Communist-era leader who had ruled newly independent Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993.

Any dissent in the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic is usually met with a tough government response.

Leyla Yunus, who has won several international awards for her activities, has worked with Armenian activists to urge reconciliation between the two countries which have been locked in a decades-long conflict over the Nagorny Karabakh region.

In an escalation of tensions on Wednesday, Azerbaijani tanks shelled positions in the breakaway territory for the first time in more than 20 years, the rebel statelet said, while Armenia arrested a retired military officer on suspicion of spying for Baku.

Washington condemned the violence and urged all sides to adhere to the ceasefire.

"The recent escalation of violence and the use of heavy weapons are unacceptable," State Department spokesman Kirby said.
Source: AFP