In Azerbaijan, six members of "Musavat" Party go on hunger strike

Today, the "Musavat" Party has announced the beginning of the hunger strike involving six persons. The protestors demand to release political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

According to the leaders of the "Musavat" Party, the protest action "is of unlimited duration" and "involves not only Baku, but also the regions of the country." On May 12, the hunger strike was started at the headquarters of the "Musavat" Party.

Elman Fattakh, the Deputy Chairman of the "Musavat" Party, has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the hunger-strikers stay at the headquarters 24 hours a day.

"The hunger-strikers will continue their protest action as long as they can, and completely exhausted activists will be replaced by their colleagues. And the protest action is to continue till the authorities will take drastic steps to address the problem of political prisoners," Elman Fattakh has stated.

"In Azerbaijan, the topic of political prisoners is the most urgent problem in the field of human rights. Our party supports a single list of political prisoners, which includes about 100 people and which has been drawn up on the basis of the information provided by human rights defenders Leyla Yunus and Rasul Jafarov, who themselves became "prisoners of conscience". Recently, this list has been updated to take into account the persons already released on pardon and on completion of their sentences and to detect new political prisoners. At present, there are 80 political prisoners in the country. The 'Musavat' Party insists on their release," Elman Fattakh has emphasized.

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