Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD) and Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC), Co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, and Christoph Strässer (Germany, SOC), rapporteur on the follow-up to the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), today welcomed the pardoning decree. Some of these prisoners are on the lists of alleged political prisoners of local human rights NGOs. The pardoning decree also includes opposition Bizim Yol newspaper correspondent Mushvig Huseynov, who has been mentioned in PACE reports.
“The Assembly has stressed many times that there can be no political prisoners in Council of Europe member states,” the rapporteurs said. They trust that Azerbaijan will further progress in fulfilling a key commitment taken when joining the Council of Europe.
