Azerbaijan: rights defenders update list of political prisoners

The updated list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan contains 135 persons, including six journalists, seven political activists and 53 believers, says the study by the Union "Freedom for Azerbaijani Political Prisoners" (UFAPP).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 31, 2019, the UFAPP released an updated list of political prisoners, which included 117 people.

On November 6, the UFAPP released an updated list of political prisoners, since some of them had been released, and in cases of some newly convicted and one newly arrested persons political motives have been established. The list now includes 135 persons, Elshan Gasanov, the coordinator of the UFAPP, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The list has been complemented with Pasha Umudov, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), who was arrested last month on the eve of the October 19 oppositional rally under a false charge of drug dealing. Besides, we've declared other 20 figurants in the 'Ganja case' as political prisoners; they had been under our monitoring and we waited for the first-instance courts to pronounce their verdicts. Now the number of political prisoners under the 'Ganja case' has reached 51 persons," Mr Gasanov has explained.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 6, 2019 at 11:40 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.