NHC awards Sakharov Prize to Azerbaijani political prisoners

The 2014 Andrei Sakharov Freedom Prize has been awarded to all 98 political prisoners of Azerbaijan the decision was made by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC).

The NHC notes that the above list of 98 Azerbaijani political prisoners includes 13 journalists and bloggers, 10 rights defenders and lawyers, 9 activists of youth organizations and other oppositional and religious activists.

" Azerbaijan, the country rich in oil and gas, authorities have been choking – for many years – any critical voices by means of long-term arrests based on trumped-up charges," says the NHC's statement.

According to the NHC, the compilation of the above list of 98 political prisoners was greatly contributed by Leyla Yunus, the Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), and her husband Arif Yunus, a historian and conflictologist. Anar Mamedli, the Head of the Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Training (CEMDT), and Bashir Suleimanly, an activist of this organization, organized election observation and revealed, in their reports, the identified violations of the law and citizens' electoral rights.

"The PACE is still unable to coordinate its report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. This work undertaken by local rights defenders and brought many of them behind bars," the NHC's press release has stressed.