Azerbaijani activists detect 108 political prisoners in country

108 names are included in the updated list of political prisoners, compiled by a working group consisting of Azerbaijani human rights defenders, activists of NGOs, and lawyers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 26, 2019, the working group released a list of political prisoners, which included the names of 112 people.

According to the report, which was made public by the working group on June 10, after the release of the previous list of political prisoners, 11 people were set free.

"The vicious practice, when new political prisoners appear instead of released political prisoners, continues. Over the past period, the list has been replenished with seven new political prisoners," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Intigam Aliev, the coordinator of the working group, the leader of the organization "Legal Education Society".

Intigam Aliev drew attention to a case of Agil Gumbatov. "The activist is included in the list, because his placement to a mental hospital was caused by political motives. He was forcibly placed there after his harsh criticism on social networks addressed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev. This is a restoration of the shameful tradition of the Soviet era to place dissidents to mental hospitals," said the coordinator of the working group.

The report of the working group also highlighted a special operation conducted by the police in the "Yeni Yasamal" residential complex on June 8, when 11 people suspected of committing administrative offenses were detained.

Authors of the report condemned the detentions with humiliation of human dignity and the dissemination of the video from the special operation.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 11, 2020 at 12:12 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.