37 people added to list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan

Over the past 1.5 months, in Azerbaijan, the number of political prisoners has increased by 37 and reached 192, the "Union for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 23, the "Union for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" (UFPPA) released the list of political prisoners, which included 158 names.

The UFPPA disseminated the updated list on August 5. 37 new names were included in the list.

Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, a co-author of the UFPPA's report, has told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the update of the list of political prisoners is connected with the mass arrests in a case on a protest action held on July 15.

"After the protest action of July 15, mass arrests took place in support of the army. We have found that cases against at least 36 arrested activists contain gross procedural violations, including issuing refusals for advocates to visit their arrested clients, keeping suspects in custody for more than 48 hours pending a court decision, and using torture against some of the arrested activists. Half of the 36 arrestees are activists of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA). Meanwhile, most of the PFPA members did not attend the protest action at all," Elshan Gasanov said.

According to him, after three activists were released and 37 others were arrested, the total number of political prisoners included in the list reached 192.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 6, 2020 at 12:06 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.