Human rights activists: the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan not solved

"The problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan is still urgent. According to our observations, it is far from being solved yet, rather, it continues to deepen," said Leila Unus, director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to her, an analysis of fulfilment of this obligation shows that, out of the initial list of 716 names and an additional list of 107 assumed political prisoners who appeared after the country's accession to the СЕ, there are still 78 prisoners.

The stand of the human rights organizations in Azerbaijan is in that these cases must be retried in conformance with the European standards. Recently, the list of political prisoners has been replenished by new names, states the human rights activist. These are musavatist Pirali Orudzhev, member of Democratic Party Aidyn Ghasanov and ex-ministers. She thinks that the problem can be solved by signing a decree on their pardon. Additionally the human rights activist has touched upon the issue of political emigrants. In her opinion, in order to finally solve the problem of political emigrants, the parliament must declare a universal political amnesty.

In her turn, Elmira Suleimanova, ombudsman of Azerbaijan has stated at today's press-conference that she does not interfere with the issue of political prisoners but she always checks the conditions of holding and treating all categories of prisoners.

For reference, the solution of the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan has been one of the obligations undertaken by the country prior to acceding to the Council of Europe (СЕ). In particular, this obligation included releasing the prisoners or holding new fair court trials on the cases of persons who were recognized as political prisoners by human rights organizations.