Azerbaijani human rights activists meet "Ago" Group

The "Ago" Group that is now in Azerbaijan met human rights activists. Eldar Zeinalov, Director of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan (HRCA), has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the meeting considered the situation with the freedom of speech, the law "On Freedom of Assembly," the staff of electoral commissions, voters' lists, the problem of political prisoners, etc.

In his presentation, the HRCA Director has expressed the opinion that the problem of political prisoners is not purely legal one, and it requires political will. This will was exposed at creating the Mixed Working Group for Political Prisoners; however, recently this group has been working unsteadily.

E. Zeinalov has also noted that to many old political prisoners the so-called "problem of 15 years," is applicable, which arose at replacement of the death penalty by life imprisonment. In particular, it refers to Elchin Amiraslanov, Safe Poladov and Arif Kyazymov - life prisoners recognized as "political" ones by the decision of the Council of Europe's experts.

We note here that a total of 72 prisoners were included into the list of the Federation of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan (FHROA) of whom a quarter (19 persons) were arrested in 2005-2007.