Four persons from the list of political prisoners pardoned in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has signed a decree to pardon 84 people, including four persons earlier recognized as political prisoners.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the "list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan" was disseminated on August 8 and it included 97 names. Human rights defender Intigam Aliev was arrested after the dissemination of the above list. The public activists have recognized Intigam Aliev as a political prisoner, and thus, the total number of political prisoners reached 98 persons.

According to the presidential decree, the youth activists of the "Nida" Movement Bakhtiyar Guliev, Shakhin Novruzlu and Elsever Mursalli will regain freedom. Back in June and July they applied for pardoning, submitted applications to quit the "Nida" and announced their support of the Azerbaijani authorities, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

On May 6, Bakhtiyar Guliev, Shakhin Novruzlu, Mamed Azizov, Zaur Gurbanly, Rashad Gasanov, Uzeyir Mamedli, Rashadat Akhundov and Ilkin Rustamzade, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to eight years for organizing mass riots; and none of them pled guilty.

Another pardoned person is Gasan Guseinli, the head of the non-governmental educational centre "Intellectual Citizen", acting in the city of Gandzha (Ganja). In early August, during the escalation of tension on the frontline in Nagorno-Karabakh, Guseinli issued a statement urging the society to consolidate around the government and asked not to consider him a political prisoner.

Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, expressed, in his comment on the presidential decree, his regret that the pardoning had failed to solve the problem of political prisoners. According to his version, there are still about 100 political prisoners in the country.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.