Rights defenders criticize custody conditions in Azerbaijani jails

Many Azerbaijani prisons are overcrowded; most of them fail to meet modern standards; the food is bad; and inmates have to pay for everything that is due to them by the law. The use of torture against convicts also remains an urgent problem, human rights defenders assert.

Despite the decrease in the number of prisoners in recent years, Azerbaijan remains among the leaders in this indicator among the countries of the Council of Europe, the study said.

In January 2020, in Azerbaijan, there were 357 prisoners per 100,000 of population. At the same time, the overcrowding index of prisons in Azerbaijan is below the European average. The density of the prison population for every 100 places was 82.4%.

However, the statistical indicators fail to reflect the qualitative change in the situation in the prisons of Azerbaijan, Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, believes.

"The barracks contain 30-40 or more inmates each. There are 10-11 toilets in a colony for 600-700 prisoners. The quality of food is very poor, while foodstuffs sold in prison stores are very expensive," said the human rights defender, who was himself a "prisoner of conscience."

In his opinion, in order to improve the situation in prisons, there should be more in-depth studies conducted by the Council of Europe in each country. He has noted that most of the prisoners have been convicted for drug dealing, while not all of them are "drug lords".

Rufat Safarov, the executive director of the NGO named "Defence Line", has noted that due to the low quality of medical care in Azerbaijani jails, the mortality rate among prisoners remains high.

Rasul Djafarov, the head of the Baku Human Rights Club (BHRC), believes that the number of prisoners could be significantly reduced by applying the conditional early relief (CER).