Samad Seyidov: There Are One Million Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan

Baku / 10.04.19 / Turan: On April 9, within the framework of the spring session of the PACE in Strasbourg, the PACE Monitoring and Legal Committee organized hearings on the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Opening the hearings, Torhildur Barsdottir (Iceland), head of the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee and rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, said that after the March pardon, when dozens of political prisoners were released, this problem was not solved. To this day, about 70 people remain in custody, which human rights activists recognize as political prisoners.

In addition, some of the recently released were again arrested and again for political reasons, such as the youth activist Bayram Mammadov, Barsdottir said.

The rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee for Azerbaijan, Stefan Schennach (Austria), noted that drug charges or tax evasion are most often used in Azerbaijan against political prisoners. He rejected the statements of official Baku on the absence of the problem of political prisoners in the country. "Entering the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan assumed certain obligations and we deal with this issue within the framework of this," he said.

Human rights activist Leyla Yunus in her speech noted that in January 2013, PACE members had voted against the Strasser report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. "Thus, they gave the green light to the most terrible repressions in Azerbaijan. We were all arrested, as a result, today there is no de facto civil society, independent NGOs or the media," she noted.

Referring to the topic of political prisoners, she highlighted the case of a group of military and civilians accused of spying for Armenia and tortured in custody. She presented a list of seven soldiers killed under torture in the Terter region in 2016, whose guilt was not proven.

The head of the party ReAl Ilgar Mammadov took part in the discussions on Skype, saying that the authorities did not give him a passport, despite the decision of the court and he could not come to Strasbourg.

"Addressing the PACE members I want to emphasize, let them not believe in any assurances of the authorities about the reforms in Azerbaijan. The mechanism for creating political prisoners has not changed and there is no political will or change," he stressed.

For all the time of the country's membership in the Council of Europe, the situation with human rights and democracy has steadily worsened. Unfortunately, the PACE structure did nothing to prevent the appearance of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. "The atmosphere of impunity allows the authorities to create something like this," he said, calling on the Council of Europe to reconsider its attitude towards Azerbaijan.

As an illustrative example, he called the official Baku ignoring the decision of the European Court of Human Rights. At the same time, the Council of Europe conducts trainings for judges, who then release sentences on political prisoners.

The human rights activist Rasul Jafarov in his speech rejected the accusations of the authorities that raising the issue of political prisoners, human rights activists disgrace Azerbaijan and harm its image. "We love our country and that"s why we demand to solve the problem of political prisoners," he said, calling on the Azerbaijani authorities to release all political prisoners.

During the discussions, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, Samad Seyidov, tried to accuse the discussion participants of being engaged in political ambitions. He urged the audience not to believe the allegations of political persecution in Azerbaijan. In conclusion, Samad Seyidov, with his characteristic artistry, suddenly declared: "Yes, there are political prisoners in Azerbaijan - these are 1 million IDPs from the regions occupied by Armenia."

Seyidov"s attempt to make the audience believe what was said caused only smiles and Torhildur Barsdottir, the chairperson, said she is a rapporteur on the issue of political prisoners and knows well what is happening in Azerbaijan. -02B-