Human rights activists to present list of Azerbaijani political prisoners to PACE session

The delegation of human rights activists from Azerbaijan was invited to Strasbourg to the regular session of the PACE to take place on April 27-30.

"We plan to hold plenty of meetings with representatives of various structures of the Council of Europe with the aim to discuss the situation in Azerbaijan with human rights. Unfortunately, the state of affairs in this sphere in Azerbaijan is still complicated. The problem of political prisoners remains unsolved, journalists are in prisons, citizens' ownership rights are broken," Novella Dzhafaroglu, Chair of the Azerbaijani Society in Defence of Women's Rights, said in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She has especially noted the forthcoming meeting with Krishtof Stresser, newly appointed Special Rapporteur of the PACE on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

As Ms Dzhafaroglu has reported that the Rapporteur will be given the list of 29 political prisoners prepared by the monitoring group of human rights organizations of Azerbaijan.

"The list will contain detailed information about the reasons for which these persons were arrested, charges presented to them, terms of punishment and places of custody," the human rights activist has noted. Besides, according to Dzhafaroglu, they plan to meet the members of the Venetian Commission of the Council of Europe with the aim to discuss the outcomes of the March 18 referendum, which introduced amendments into the Constitution of Azerbaijan.

In his turn, Aidyn Mirzazade, a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE and MP from the party in power "Eni Azerbaijan", has denied any presence in Azerbaijan "of politically-motivated convicts." According to his story, the persons listed by various human rights organizations as political prisoners were convicted for criminal offences.