PACE deputies demand to appoint rapporteur on torture in Azerbaijan

Amid the increased violations of political prisoners' rights in Azerbaijan, a group of deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) came up with an initiative to appoint a PACE's rapporteur on torture in this country; it follows from a joint statement of the initiative group of PACE deputies.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that earlier, PACE deputies condemned violations of rights of opponents of Azerbaijani authorities. Thus, on June 29, 2019, in a joint statement, a group of deputies condemned repressions against the opposition. On June 24, 2021, the PACE pointed out that the problems with political prisoners in Azerbaijan had not been resolved.

A group of 24 PACE deputies have come up with an initiative to appoint a rapporteur for investigating the use of torture in Azerbaijan; the respective document was posted on June 25 on the PACE's website.

The authors of the document have justified the need to hold investigations with the facts of large-scale torture in the "Terter case", the victims of which were over 200 military servicemen; 11 of whom died, as well as with frequented reports of inhuman treatment of authorities' critics. "The PACE is concerned about the growing number of reports of torture and inhuman treatment of detainees in Azerbaijan," reads the petition of the PACE deputies, translated by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 26, 2021 at 03:37 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.