23:50, 25 January 2010

PACE to insist on release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku. Photo by http://ru.wikipedia.org

The Council of Europe does a lot to urge Azerbaijan to execute its liabilities before this organization. This was stated on January 25 in Strasbourg by Luis Maria de Puch, head of the PACE Assembly before the opening of the winter session. It was his last press conference as the head of the PACE in connection with the expiry of his two years in office.

As reported by the special "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from Strasbourg, while answering the question on possible measures towards solving the problem of arrested bloggers and journalists in Azerbaijan, Mr de Puch said that he had personally raised "this issue in talks with President Ilham Aliev, members of the Azerbaijani government, Azerbaijani representatives in Strasbourg and members of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE."

"We go on with our work towards releasing all the persons arrested on political and other grounds, which we believe unreasonable," Mr de Puch said.

Having noted a "certain progress" in this issue, he has added that "the PACE will go on insisting that Azerbaijan behave within democratic principles."

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent