Heydar Aliyev, and commissioned by his son, Illham, who became president after his father's death in 2003. Hugh Williamson, director of Human Rights Watch for Europe and the Central Asian division, called Aliyev "an authoritarian leader and so is his son." The former Soviet secret police general ruled for 30 years, first as its Communist leader and then as its president. Amnesty International accused him of human rights abuses, balloting irregularities and intimidating the opposition while in power. Several architecture critics who admired the work itself felt that Dame Zaha should have raised questions about this repressive leader even as she accepted the commission, and other critics questioned the UK granting its most prestigious architecture award to a building which memorialized a vicious Soviet dictator.