Council of Europe rates Azerbaijan opposition leaders as political prisoners

During its regular meeting in Paris, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) considered the situation with political prisoners in Azerbaijan, human rights activist Murad Sadaddinov told the Caucasian Knot correspondent. Malcolm Bruce added to his report on the honoring of resolution # 1315 by Azerbaijan changes concerning the issue of seven opposition leaders arrested in the course of the October 15-16 developments, Mr Sadaddinov informed. "The new information submitted to the PACE reads that after October 5, the trial against the opposition leaders finished in a court of first instance. It includes a list of their names, terms they received, and explanations by human rights activists why they rate them as political prisoners," the human rights activist said.

"Another moment raising concern on the part of the Azerbaijan authorities is connected with a new list given in the report, which contains 174 political prisoners. From our point of view, there're many inaccuracies and unclear moments in this list. Many names in it are repeated - over 60 names are already mentioned in the main list of political prisoners according to which the work between Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe is conducted. This list includes 716 people. Besides, 54 out of 174 people were sentenced after April 15, 2004, and it means they have to turn to the European Court of Human Rights and not to the Council of Europe. 146 people from the list aren't recognized as political prisoners by experts of the Council of Europe, 30 people have already been released, 1 man has died, and 5 do not exist at all. That's why this list raises a lot of questions," Mr Sadaddinov added.