On 28 March the Human Rights Department of the Institute of Peace and Democracy released a statement on the situation of political prisoners. The statement, signed by the director of the IPD Leyla Yunus (right), suggests a number of mechanisms to solve the problem with political prisoners, such as repeated courts, amnesty on political articles, adoption of the law about defamation, demonstration, etc. (30-MAR-08)

Placed by Shahla Ismayilova / HRH Azerbaijan
 
“Freedom to political prisoners!” this was the demand of prisoners who commenced a hunger strike at the Correctional Labor Colony N1 on March 28th. This hunger strike was commenced  by the following prisoners: Rasim Akperov ( was condemned  during the parliament elections in 2000 and was sentenced to 15 years under the falsified accusation of coup de’tat), Ruslan Bashirli (was convicted during the parliament elections of 2005 and was sentenced to 7 years under the falsified accusation of coup de’tat) and Mushfig Madatov ( was convicted and sentenced to a 12 years imprisonment in 1996 and then he was repeatedly convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 11 years under the falsified accusation of the crime that he committed while he was in prison).

The journalist Eynulla Fatullayev who is imprisoned at the Correctional Labor Colony N13 (who was convicted and sentenced to 8 years in 2007 under the falsified accusation of terrorism) also joined the hunger strike on March 26th with the demand for the release of convicted journalists and other political prisoners. E.Fatullayev’s demand was supported by journalists Shakhveled Chobanoglu and Zakhid Safaroglu who joined the hunger strike. Journalists plan to conduct the same action at the office of the “Yeni Musavat” newspaper.

If journalists’ hunger strikes occurred in Azerbaijan before, the hunger strike of political prisoners with political demands is conducted for the first time in the republic (no political demands were put forward during hunger strikes in a covered prison of Gobustan).

According to the list of the Federation of Human Rights Organizations, 65 political prisoners remain imprisoned, including 10 “Karabakh guerillas” (political motivation was excluded from the sentence) and 4 journalists (who were recognized to be “prisoners of conscience” by the Amnesty International).

The problem of political and conscience prisoners which turned into one the important and dramatic problems of the republic can not be solved by means of pardoning acts. Moreover, the civil society and international organizations (OSCE, CE, EU and diplomatic missions accredited in Azerbaijan) express gratitude to the head of the state for “humanism, demonstrated while pardoning” criminals who indeed committed crimes and were pardoned before their term expired. It is unacceptable to thank for pardoning political prisoners, especially prisoners of conscience – citizens who did not break the law and were convicted under falsified accusations, thus years were gone from their life which was undermined in prison.

The mechanism for the solution of the problem on political prisoners must include several points: repeated courts, amnesty on political articles, adoption of the law about defamation, demonstration of political will and refusal to pursue dissidents, reform of the judicial system by amending laws about courts and judges.

Appointment of PACE’s special reporter on the problem of political prisoners may and must promote the solution of this disgraceful problem within the country.