Death penalty replaced with "slow death"

On 10 February 1998, Azerbaijan became the first country in the Muslim world to abolish death penalty. At that time, 128 people in Azerbaijan were waiting to be executed by firing squad. However, the attitude to them is not much different from when they were sentenced to death and their imprisonment was regarded as a temporary measure before the execution.

During the six years since the abolition of capital punishment, at least 30 inmates serving life sentences and four prisoners sentenced to death who were subsequently amnestied, died, i.e. nearly every fourth.

According to the norm of the law that was still in force at the time of the crime, the abolition of the death penalty was to be replaced with up to 15 years' imprisonment but not with the life sentence which did not exist at the time.

Without the change in the attitude towards the prisoners formerly sentenced to death and conditions they are kept in, the life sentence remains a "slow execution", says Eldar Zeynalov, director of Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan. "Humane attitude towards those who were saved from death by the country in 1998 must not be formalistic, solely concerned with demands from international organisations, and all of our society needs it no less then the prisoners formerly sentenced to death or the Council of Europe," believes Mr Zeynalov.