Human rights activists of Azerbaijan are disappointed in the results of President’s charter of pardon

Human rights activists in Azerbaijan are disappointed in the charter of pardon signed by President of the country Ilham Aliev which in their opinion failed to solve the problem of political prisoners once again.

“We are greatly disappointed. Our monitoring group asked the President to pardon twenty political prisoners. Unfortunately, only two of them were among those pardoned”, Novella Jafaroglu, Head of Association of Women’s Rights, said.

“We would very much like the problem of political prisoners to be solved till the forthcoming song contest “Eurovision-2012” which will be held on May, 22 – May, 26, in Baku”, Jafaroglu added.

Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, said that she had not “expected any other result”. She remarked that only those political prisoners were pardoned who submitted a petition about it.

Besides, Bashirli who was pardoned had only four months of prison left before release. She does not rule out that the young man wrote the petition of pardon under pressure.

“It is highly probable that he was threatened with forging a new criminal case in order to leave him in prison. The same concerns Elnur Israfilov who several weeks ago sent a statement to mass media from prison about his wish to be pardoned and join the ruling party “Eni Azerbaijan”, Yunus said.

Members of the Committee for Pardon with the President refused to comment on the criteria of selection of convicts for pardon. They state that this is a question of the President’s exclusive competence.

Ruslan Bashirli, one of the released political prisoners, confirmed that he did really submit the petition of pardon. “Everyone writes this petition. If anybody says that he has not done so this person does not tell the truth”, Bashirli said.

He declared that he was not going to deal with politics any longer but he did not rule out that he would be engaged in human rights of journalist’s activities. “I have spent 6 years and 8 months in prison, I know the convicts’ problems well and I wish to help solve them”, Bashirli added.

Elnur Israfilov, the second pardoned person, turned out inaccessible for comment. He avoids contacts with press. A month ago he sent a statement to mass media that he took part in the meeting of April, 2, 2011, by error. He also asked mass media not to call him a political prisoner or “prisoner of conscience”.