In Azerbaijan, they wait for another pardon decree

Before May 28 - the Republic Day - Ilkham Aliev, president of Azerbaijan, may sign another Pardon Decree. Elmira Akhundova, MP and member of the Pardon Commission under the president of the Republic, told about it in her talk with journalists.

In her words, the Commission is not going to consider a new list of political prisoners submitted by certain human rights activists to the Council of Europe. The Commission thinks that the issue of political prisoners was closed back in 2002, and there is no sense to get back to it. The deputy noted that in 2002 Azerbaijan acceded to the European Convention for human rights, and it gave an opportunity to apply to the European Court, thus, there is no need to have a new list. However, along with that, she noted that the members of the Commission are trying to ensure the coverage by the new Decree of the greatest possible number of women, since the latest decrees have granted mercy to too little amount of women: "Only I have received applications from 20 convicted women and their relatives. We hope that this time more women will be pardoned."

However, in the opinion of human rights activists, the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan is still actual. According to human rights activist Leila Yunus, it is not only still open, but continues to aggravate. She noted that the analysis of performing the liability indicates that out of the initial list of 716 names and additional list of 107 supposed political prisoners, which appeared after the country's accession to the CE, 78 inmates are still in custody.

We remind you that the resolution of the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan was one of the obligations accepted by the country before accession to the Council of Europe (CE). In particular, this liability assumed release or holding new fair trials on the cases of the persons, recognized to be political prisoners by human rights organizations.