Among those pardoned: two "prisoners of conscience" and 11 political prisoners

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on December 26, 2012 pardoning 87 people. Seventy nine of them were released from a prison sentence, four from hard labor, and another four from penalties.

Among those pardoned are two "prisoners of conscience" - human rights activist Vidadi Iskenderli and PPFA member Shahin Hasanli. 

In addition, 11 other people pardoned were from the list of local human rights defenders and political prisoners reported by PACE Rapporteur Christopher Strasser. They are Shamsi Abdullayev (case of Special Police Force), the Iranian television journalist Anar Bayramli, the regional correspondent of the newspaper Khural Aydin Janiyev, two religious leaders from Ganja, Azer Jabiyev and Fakhri Ilyasov (arrested in early 2011),  human rights activist Taleh Khasmamedov, Jeyhun Farzullaev (he was convicted, along with the leader of National Statehood Party Nemat Panahli), Mammadali Aliyev (former chief of the Absheron district police office in the mid-1990s; he was wanted on suspicion of committing a number of crimes, including the attempt to overthrow the government, but was arrested in 2008, and in 2010 sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of premeditated murder), and the so-called "prisoners of the hijab" (participants in protests against the ban on wearing headscarves in schools) Mamed Askerov, Ilgar Musayev and Zaur Iskenderov. --0--