Human rights activists announce new list of political prisoners

The Union "For Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan" (FPPA) announced on 14 June a new list of 303 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. As compared to the previous list of 18 March, the number of political prisoners has risen by 16 people.

Over the past three months, opposition politician and academic economist Gubad Ibadoglu was removed from the list and his preventive measure was changed to house arrest.

There are 17 new names on the list. In particular, these include human rights activist Anar Mammadli, head of online platform meclis.info Imran Aliyev, economist Farid Mehralizadeh, Party of People's Front of Azerbaijan members Sahib Mammadzadeh and Mehman Aliyev, social activists Elshan Kerimov and Lachin Veliyev, as well as paralysed activist Famil Khalilov.

The remaining 9 people are believers.

Note that the 303 political prisoners are categorized into 8 groups:

No. 1 - "Journalists and bloggers" - 20 people

No. 2 - "Human rights defenders" - 3 persons

No. 3 - "Members of opposition parties and movements" - 28 persons

No. 4 - "Political emigrants deported from Germany" - 5 persons

No. 5 - "Believers" - 216 persons

No. 6 - "Convicted in the Terter case" - 7 persons

No. 7 - "Convicted in the Ganja case" - 13 persons

No. 8 - "Life convicts" - 11 persons.

The list was compiled by former "prisoners of conscience" - Leyla Yunus, director of the Peace and Democracy Institute, and Elshan Hasanov, head of the Political Prisoners Monitoring Center.

It should be added that for the first time since the early 2000s, the number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan exceeded 300 people.