Human Rights Committee of Conference of INGO of Council of Europe Calls Baku to Release Political Prisoners

Strasbourg /25.01.19/Turan: The Human Rights Committee of Conference of the INGO of the Council of Europe welcomed the decision of the General Prosecutor"s Office in Azerbaijan to drop the additional criminal charges against the anti-corruption blogger and Chairman of the Institute for Reporters" Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Mehman Huseynov. The Committee thanked the Azerbaijan Permanent Representation to the Council of Europe for the dialogue during the emergency side-event organized by the Human Rights Committee, in the Council of Europe, on the day before General Prosecutor"s decision.

"We call on the Azerbaijan authorities to continue on this new path and to reconsider the sentences of other well-known, prominent human rights defenders and civil society activists already behind bars or prohibited from leaving the territory, as well as the charges against the protesters in solidarity with Mr. Mehman Huseynov," Chair of the Human Rights Committee of Conference of the INGO of the Council of Europe, Simon Matthijssen, wrote. -06D--