12:57, 28 March 2008

Azerbaijan: three more inmates are hunger-striking

Today in Azerbaijan, three inmates of the Correctional Labour Colony (CLC) No. 1 have started a hunger-strike with a demand to free all political prisoners. Human rights activist Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, informed the "Caucasian Knot" about it.

"While hunger strikes of journalists took place in the past in Azerbaijan, a hunger strike of political prisoners with political demands is held for the first time in the country," Leila Yunus asserts.

She has explained that the hunger strike was initiated by inmates Rasim Akperov, convicted to 15 years of imprisonment during the 2000 parliamentary elections on charge of a putsch attempt, Ruslan Bashirli, convicted to 7 years in prison during the 2005 parliamentary elections on the same charge, and Mushvig Madatov, convicted in 1996 to 10 years in prison and repeatedly - to 11 years more for a crime accomplished in custody in 2006.