PACE reports unresolved problems with political prisoners in Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijan’s authorities did not recognize the problem with political prisoners, described in the PACE resolution in January 2020, and the problem remains unresolved, the PACE declares in its new report.

On January 30, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) considered the “Case on reports in connection with political prisoners in Azerbaijan” and released a corresponding resolution. According to the PACE’s resolution, the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan has not been resolved. The PACE urges the Azerbaijan’s authorities to reconsider the cases of sentenced activists and journalists.

According to the document, prepared by Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland) and approved by the PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee at a meeting on June 23, most of the provisions of the PACE’s resolution were not implemented by the authorities of Azerbaijan.

“The only exceptions are the inexcusably late quashing of the convictions of Mr Ilgar Mamedov and Mr Rasul Djafarov […] and the late submission of partial information to the Committee of Ministers in the context of its supervision of relevant judgments of the European Court of Human Rights,” reads a statement posted on the website of the Council of Europe.

According to the report, the Azerbaijani side refused to cooperate with PACE Rapporteur Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir. Meanwhile, in response to her letter, Samed Seidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, denied that there were any political prisoners in the country.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 24, 2021 at 02:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.