Jafarli: PACE Co-rapporteurs Expressed Interest in Release of Political Prisoners

On a visit to Azerbaijan, the PACE co-rapporteurs Stefan Shennak (Austria) and Cesar Florin Preda (Romania) on January 13 met with the head of the party Musavat Arif Hajili, the chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Ali Karimli and the executive secretary of the movement Republican Alternative (REAL) Natig Jafarli.

Hajili told Turan that during the meeting they discussed the situation with democracy and human rights, the problem of political prisoners, the results of the referendum on amendments to the Constitution, the Karabakh settlement, and the state electoral law.

"The human rights situation develops in a negative direction, deteriorating the law especially regulating the activities of civil society, media and political parties. Every new election is held worse than the previous ones, and the number of political prisoners is growing," said Hajili.

According to him, the co-rapporteurs assured that they would keep the questions raised by the opposition in the spotlight and more actively engage in dialogue with all parties to solve problems.

As noted Hajili, the Council of Europe is a diverse organization in terms of the participation of a number of states with authoritarian regimes. In recent years, these countries, including Azerbaijan, using lobbying groups, opposed the adoption of critical decisions against them. An example of this failure was Christoph Strasser's report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Now, however, after the investigation against the former Italian MP Luca Volonte, facts of bribery of a number of parliamentarians that opposed the Strasser report have been publicized.

Hajili said that the Council of Europe and all its structures must continue efforts to be more consistent in upholding its principles and values.

According to the executive secretary of the movement REAL Natig Jafarli, the speakers showed "awareness of problems in Azerbaijan."

They have even been informed about the latest case of kidnapping and torture of the blogger Mehman Huseynov.

By the way, this egregious lawlessness against the blogger on the eve of the visit of the PACE reinforces the conviction that in the higher echelons of power there are pro-Russian forces that seek as much as possible to spoil Azerbaijan's relations with the West.

Jafarli also had the impression that the co-rapporteurs have the desire to achieve concrete results. "I understand that their main task is to free all political prisoners in the near future, including Ilgar Mammadov, the leader of REAL," said Jafarli.

Incidentally the co-rapporteurs were also aware of the criminal case against Jafarli himself. He is under investigation for an absurd criminal case, despite the fact that the initial examination did not reveal violations by the activist, and he was even lifted the ban on leaving the country. However, in August, he was suddenly detained. Later, though, he was released from detention, but he is under a subscription about not departure even from Baku.

Judging by the statements of the co-rapporteurs, as well as the direction of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Special Mission specifically for the case of Ilgar Mammadov, Strasbourg is obsessed with correcting the organization's image much corrupted as a result of the so-called "caviar diplomacy", Jafarli continued.

"The impression is that the Council of Europe and PACE began the process of "re-branding" to recover the image of the organization. After all, the story of the receipt of bribes by the Italian deputy Luca Volonte for lobbying the interests of the government of Azerbaijan has caused serious damage to the image of the Council of Europe,"Jafarli said.

According to him, the speaker said that in the near future Azerbaijan will be visited again. In all likelihood, they will prepare a report at the PACE April session.

And the authorities still have a chance before the adoption of the report to release political prisoners in March, on the eve of the Novruz holiday, Jafarli said. -06B--