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Azeri rights champion calls for single list of political prisoners
Bilik Dunyasi news agency
28 Apr 05
BAKU
Rights champion Novella Cafaroglu, who is one of the leaders of the
monitoring group of human rights organizations, has put forward the
initiative to hold a meeting of all Azerbaijani rights activists in
order to agree on the number of political prisoners remaining in
Azerbaijan.
She explained the initiative by saying that nongovernmental
organizations provide contradictory information concerning the number
of political prisoners.
Namely, according to the monitoring group of human rights
organizations, there are still 53 political prisoners in Azerbaijan,
including 47 from the Council of Europe's list which originally
comprised 716 political prisoners, and three people convicted in the
aftermath of post-election clashes in October 2003.
Cafaroglu said that among the 47 people are former employees of the
special purpose police and relatives of former parliament Speaker
Rasul Quliyev and former Prime Minister Surat Huseynov.
The rights activist added that unlike the monitoring group of human
rights organizations, the federation of human rights organizations led
by Eldar Zeynalov and Leyla Yunus says there are 130 political
prisoners in the country.
The Azerbaijani foundation for democratic development and protection
of human rights is citing yet another figure - 80 people. The
foundation also says that about 40 people are from the list of 716
prisoners, while the rest are those who have emerged since Azerbaijan
joined the Council of Europe in 2001. The foundation describes as
political prisoners the would-be Karabakh guerrillas who were
sentenced in December last year for illegal possession of arms,
ammunition and explosives.
The people arrested under that case were going to wage a guerrilla war
in the rear of the Armenian armed forces on occupied Azerbaijani
territories. The foundation describes them as political prisoners
because under the Azerbaijani Criminal Code they could have received
much more lenient sentences and their punishment does not match the
proportion of their wrongdoing.
Cafaroglu said that in determining the number of political prisoners
the monitoring group is governed by Council of Europe criteria.
"Since we come up with differing figures, the Council of Europe
doesn't always treat us seriously and the authorities often capitalize
on that. If we agree on the number of political prisoners, this will
allow us to set up a united front," Cafaroglu said.
Unlike rights champions, the Azerbaijani authorities think the problem
of political prisoners has been resolved. For instance, the head of
the department for work with law-enforcement bodies of the Azerbaijani
presidential administration, Fuad Alasgarov, believes the issue of
political prisoners who were included in the Council of Europe's list
has been resolved. There are several persons still in custody but they
are heinous criminals. They committed murders and organized or
perpetrated acts of terror, Alasgarov said.
Bilik Dunyasi news agency
28 Apr 05
BAKU
Rights champion Novella Cafaroglu, who is one of the leaders of the
monitoring group of human rights organizations, has put forward the
initiative to hold a meeting of all Azerbaijani rights activists in
order to agree on the number of political prisoners remaining in
Azerbaijan.
She explained the initiative by saying that nongovernmental
organizations provide contradictory information concerning the number
of political prisoners.
Namely, according to the monitoring group of human rights
organizations, there are still 53 political prisoners in Azerbaijan,
including 47 from the Council of Europe's list which originally
comprised 716 political prisoners, and three people convicted in the
aftermath of post-election clashes in October 2003.
Cafaroglu said that among the 47 people are former employees of the
special purpose police and relatives of former parliament Speaker
Rasul Quliyev and former Prime Minister Surat Huseynov.
The rights activist added that unlike the monitoring group of human
rights organizations, the federation of human rights organizations led
by Eldar Zeynalov and Leyla Yunus says there are 130 political
prisoners in the country.
The Azerbaijani foundation for democratic development and protection
of human rights is citing yet another figure - 80 people. The
foundation also says that about 40 people are from the list of 716
prisoners, while the rest are those who have emerged since Azerbaijan
joined the Council of Europe in 2001. The foundation describes as
political prisoners the would-be Karabakh guerrillas who were
sentenced in December last year for illegal possession of arms,
ammunition and explosives.
The people arrested under that case were going to wage a guerrilla war
in the rear of the Armenian armed forces on occupied Azerbaijani
territories. The foundation describes them as political prisoners
because under the Azerbaijani Criminal Code they could have received
much more lenient sentences and their punishment does not match the
proportion of their wrongdoing.
Cafaroglu said that in determining the number of political prisoners
the monitoring group is governed by Council of Europe criteria.
"Since we come up with differing figures, the Council of Europe
doesn't always treat us seriously and the authorities often capitalize
on that. If we agree on the number of political prisoners, this will
allow us to set up a united front," Cafaroglu said.
Unlike rights champions, the Azerbaijani authorities think the problem
of political prisoners has been resolved. For instance, the head of
the department for work with law-enforcement bodies of the Azerbaijani
presidential administration, Fuad Alasgarov, believes the issue of
political prisoners who were included in the Council of Europe's list
has been resolved. There are several persons still in custody but they
are heinous criminals. They committed murders and organized or
perpetrated acts of terror, Alasgarov said.