Problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan ‘neither recognised nor resolved’ - Council of Europe

Strasbourg/23.06.21/Turan: The problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, as identified and described in a January 2020 resolution of the Assembly, “has been neither duly recognised nor adequately addressed by the authorities, let alone resolved”, according to a follow-up report declassified yesterday by the Legal Affairs and Human Rights of  PACE.

The follow-up report, prepared by Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC) and endorsed by the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee at a meeting yesterday, said most provisions of the resolution “have not been implemented” by the authorities.

“The only exceptions are the inexcusably late quashing of the convictions of Mr Ilgar Mammadov and Mr Rasul Jafarov […] and the late submission of partial information to the Committee of Ministers in the context of its supervision of relevant judgments of the European Court of Human Rights,” the report said.

In a separate statement, the Legal Affairs Committee endorsed the report and expressed “particular disappointment” at the failure of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Assembly to co-operate with the rapporteur in the exercise of her mandate, as well as the continuing failure of the Azerbaijani authorities to implement fully the relevant, binding judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. -02D-