Azerbaijan pardons 157 prisoners

By his decree of May 26, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev pardoned 171 punished persons. According to the document, 157 prisoners are freed from further serving their prison terms, including four persons recognized as political prisoners by rights defenders; two people sentenced to conditional imprisonment are exempt of it; one person is relieved from public works; 11 people are exempt from payment of awarded fines, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The list of those pardoned includes 13 Iranian citizens and one citizen of Afghanistan, Belarus and Turkmenistan each. The now released recognized political prisoners are Dashgyn Melikov, Bakhtiyar Mamedov, Faramaz Allahverdiev and Fuad Guseinov.

According to rights defenders, as of the start of 2014, Azerbaijan had a total of 134 persons, convicted or facing inquiry for political reasons.

Let us note here that the authorities deny the existence of political prisoners in the country. On January 15 in Brussels, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev asserted, at a joint press conference with the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that there are no political prisoners in Azerbaijan.