Why didn't the pardon affect the political prisoners?

Baku/08.05.23/Turan: There are political prisoners among people pardoned by the  decree of the head of state. They are the leader of the “Citizens and Development Party” Ali Aliyev and human rights activist from Sumgayit Elchin Mamed. Four convicts in the so-called "Terter case" - Nusrat Gurbanov, Vagif Aliyev, Hajiyev Suleiman and Seymour Hasanov - were also pardoned. In addition, two defendants in the "Ganja case" were pardoned - Samir Ibrahimov and Gabib Gurbanov. However, among those pardoned there are no convicts in the "Nardaran case".

Dozens of activists of the Popular Front Party who have been subjected to mass repressions in recent years have also not been pardoned. The list of pardoned journalists and bloggers, as well as a large group of political activists deported from Germany and convicted on false charges of drug trafficking, is not on the list. "This pardon did not solve the problem of political prisoners in any way, and it is difficult to call it an act of humanism," said Rufat Safarov, head of the human rights organization Line of Defense.

At the same time, the President pardoned the former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture Rafik Bayramov and ex-officers of the liquidated Ministry of National Security – Azer Mehdiyev and Zaur Mammadov, convicted of serious crimes – corruption, extortion, and blackmail. Who was pardoned in this case?

The head of the Baku Human Rights Club, human rights activist Rasul Jafarov, answers this question in the "Difficult Question" program.

In his opinion, speaking about the evaluation of the list of pardoned, it is necessary to pay attention to two criteria.

"The first is the general meaning of this order. Of course, the pardon order itself and other acts related to the release of prisoners should be positively evaluated. If more than 801 convicts are covered by this order, 463 of them have been released from imprisonment, and 220 people from half of the part of the sentence not served in the form of imprisonment, then this can only be welcomed. The second criterion is cases with political motivation, and I would like to see among the pardoned, all of whose "political" names are in the lists submitted by human rights organizations. Therefore, we believe that our work in this direction should continue."

According to Jafarov, the list of prisoners for political reasons of the Baku Human Rights Club, submitted to the authorities on January 19, 2023, included 50 people. Of these, only ten prisoners were released by a pardon order.

"Due to the fact that the pardon order was signed on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev, we expected more," the human rights activist stressed.—0—