CoE's Commissioner calls on Azerbaijani authorities to stop prosecuting citizens for their statements

The Azerbaijani leadership should stop criminal prosecution of citizens for their statements and respect democratic norms in the country, Nils Mujzhnieks, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (CoE), said after his visit to Azerbaijan.

"In Azerbaijan, journalists, bloggers, activists, and other independent-minded people are still facing severe restrictions on their freedom of expression. Obviously, people should not get in jail for expressing their viewpoints," runs the today's statement of Nils Mujzhnieks.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Mr Mujzhnieks visited Azerbaijan on May 22-25. The Commissioner had meetings both with state officials and human rights defenders and activists.

In the opinion of Rasul Djafarov, the head of the "Human Rights Club", the major problems with the situation in the country were marked correctly by Mujzhnieks.

Fuad Gasanov, the head of the NGO "Democratic Monitor", sticks to the same opinion.

In the course of his visit, Mujzhnieks visited Ismailli, were mass riots took place on January 23-24, and the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in the capital's suburb of Kurdakhani, which keeps Ilgar Mamedov, the leader of the public movement "Republican Alternative" (ReAl), arrested on charges of organizing the riots; Zaur Gurbanly, an activist of the "Nida" (Shout) movement; and Hilal Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh).