In Azerbaijan, about 1000 prisoners ask to pardon them

On January 30, a meeting of the Pardon Issues Commission under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan was held in Baku.

The Commission received about 1000 appeals with requests for pardon. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Rashad Medjid, a member of the Commission, the editor-in-chief of the "525th Newspaper", and a member of the Union of Azerbaijani Writers.

According to him, at the meeting held on January 30, the Commission considered about 100 applications.

In February, the Commission will hold several more meetings to study all appeals, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Alimamed Nuriev, another member of the Commission, the head of the "Constitution" Research Foundation.

Rights defenders have expressed the hope that the pardon timed for the Novruz Bairam holiday will be of large scale and include political prisoners.

"According to our Centre, at present, there are 161 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. They were arrested and sentenced on obviously trumped-up charges. Pardon could save those innocent people from unjustly imposed punishments," emphasized Ogtai Gyulyalyev, a co-coordinator of the Centre for the Protection of Political Prisoners.

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