Rights defenders blame Azerbaijani authorities for disrupting PACE Rapporteur's visit

The meeting of Azerbaijani officials with the Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who is preparing a report on political prisoners, has been postponed for three months. By taking advantage of the fact that the lady's visit had been scheduled for the holiday, the authorities have disrupted her speech, human rights defenders assert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in June 2018, Thorild Sunnah Evarsdottir, a PACE's MP from Iceland, was appointed Rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. With her appointment, progress would be made in resolving problems of political prisoners in the country, rights defenders hoped. Ms Evarsdottir counted 130 political prisoners in Azerbaijan; she intends to visit Azerbaijan and listen to the position of the country's authorities.

The PACE Rapporteur was going to come to Azerbaijan on June 4 and stay in the country for two or three days, said Rasul Djafarov, the head of the Azerbaijani Human Rights Club.

"However, the authorities stated that the visit was impossible on these dates, since June 5-6 are days-off in Azerbaijan on the occasion of the Ramadan holiday, and the officials she had planned to meet would be absent at their workplaces," Mr Djafarov has stated.

He treats the officials' arguments as unconvincing, because, "when needed, officials are at work on holidays and weekends." According to Djafarov, more than 70 political prisoners are still in jails.