Meeting of PACE's Committee on political prisoners in Azerbaijan cancelled in Paris

The meeting of the PACE's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, appointed for November 16 in Paris, which was to consider the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, has been cancelled. This was reported by Einullah Fatullaev, former political prisoner invited to the meeting, now the head of the NGO "For Human Rights".

According to Einullah Fatullaev, in the late evening on November 14 the organizers of the meeting phoned him from Paris and apologized, saying that the meeting had been cancelled. According to Einullah Fatullaev, no specific explanations of the reasons for cancellation of the meeting followed.

The agenda was to include the item on the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. The audience was to listen to the half-hour speech of Christopher Strasser, PACE's Rapporteur on political prisoners, who during two years had not been allowed to enter Azerbaijan by the Azerbaijani authorities. Einullah Fatullaev was to present a 10-minute report.

Earlier, the meeting of the German Bundestag sharply criticized the Azerbaijani authorities for the fact that, the German MP Christopher Strasser, PACE's Rapporteur, was not allowed to enter the country, the member of the Council of Europe.

The Baku office of the Council of Europe had not been informed on the cancellation of the PACE's meeting. At the same time, a diplomatic source in Strasbourg reaffirmed that the meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights had been postponed "for technical reasons".

The office of the Azerbaijani Parliament did not confirm nor deny the cancellation of the meeting. The press service of the Parliament reported that at present Rafael Guseinov and Elkhan Suleimanov, two members of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE, were on a visit to Paris to attend the meetings of two PACE's Committees - the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and the Monitoring Committee. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has failed to contact the MPs.

Earlier, Azerbaijani media disseminated appeal of Guseinov, Suleimanov and Fazil Gazanfaroglu, another member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, to other members of the PACE's Committee. The appeal expresses a protest against the statements of Christopher Strasser in the Azerbaijani media.

"The issues of the newspaper "Azadlyg" of October 28-29, 2011, have published an interview with Mr Christoph Strasser, Rapporteur of the PACE's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, under the heading "Strasser threatens government with sanctions". <...> In his interview Mr. Strasser expressed his discontent with the decision of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, adopted on October 5, to replace the title of the report on political prisoners, which had been adopted by majority of "pro" votes and two "contra" votes," the agency "APA" quotes the statement of the Azerbaijani MPs.

"Furthermore, Mr Strasser has also added in his interview that the government of Azerbaijan and its associated agencies hamper his work, conducting the lobbying in Western Europe," the Azerbaijani MPs emphasize.

Despite the fact that Christopher Strasser has denied the phrases attributed to him by the newspaper "Azadlyg" and said he had not been interviewed, and the newspaper has used his speech presented at the conference devoted to the 20th anniversary of the state independence of Azerbaijan in Berlin, the Azerbaijani MPs believe it to be "not enough". They suggest Christopher Strasser to file a lawsuit against the newspaper or to resign.

The newspaper "Azadlyg" edition office reported that, in connection with the situation around Mr Strasser's interview, "a special statement would follow later." At the same time, the edition office confirmed that the co-author of the newspaper, currently residing in Europe, really spoke to Christopher Strasser.