Working Group for political prisoners formed (UPDATED)

Session of the Working Group  (WG) for political prisoners has taken place today in the parliament with participation of the government and civil society representatives. According to the meeting member, the head of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, Arzu Abdullayeva, decided that the team would focus on human rights in the broader context - not only in the affairs of political prisoners, but also to other prisoners, and, in general, human rights issues.

The WG Co-Chairs elected head of department to work with law enforcement agencies of the Presidential Administration Fuad Aleskerov and Samed Seyidov, the head of the parliamentary committee  for international relations. Human rights activist Novella Jafaroglu also was nominated co-chair, but  refuse.

From civil society  the WG  includes also: Saida Gojamanli, Saadat Bananyarly, Eldar Zeynalov, Zaliha Tagirova, Mirvari Gahramanli, Alimammad Nuriyev, Sahib Mammadov, Chingiz Ganizade, and Ali Huseynli (the latter two, are  MPs.)

Civil society activists also suggested  too include into the group  Mehman Aliyev, Avaz Hasanov, and Eldar Namazov. This proposal will be discussed at the next meeting.

 The MG  included Ilgar Jafarov (from General Prosecutor Office), Chingiz Askerov (chief of department of the presidential administration and the plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan in the Strasbourg Court), Rafael Ghvaladze (Judge of the Constitutional Court.)

WG secretaries  are Sahib Mammadov, Saadat Bananrly and Kamala Ismayilli (Secretary of the Commission of Pardons.)

Thus, an absolute majority in the WG as before have representatives of the authorities and pro-government  figures.—06D-

2014 October 21 (Tuesday) 22:54:42

On October 22 meeting it is scheduled to re-establish a working group on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, told Turan the Co-chairman of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly and the head of its National Committee Arzu Abdullayeva.

Such a group with the participation of representatives of the government and the civil society was established in 2003 and operated until 2008.

To participate in the meeting to re-establish the working group the investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova was invited. She coordinated the work of maintaining the list of political prisoners after at the end of July - at the beginning of August were arrested the human rights activists Leyla Yunus and Rasul Jafarov.

However, as Ismayilova wrote on her page on Facebook, the working group should not be used to simulate the performance and prolong the time. In her view, the process must have a specific format and timeframe and should also involve the arrested human rights activists, for whom the measure of restraint should be changed.

At the moment, from the list of 98 political prisoners released by Ismayilova by August 8 on behalf of a large group of civil society activists, five men have been released. These are four men pardoned on October 17, including three activists of NIDA, Bakhtiyar Guliyev, Shahin Novruzlu and Elsever Mursalli and the head of the Educational Center Intelligent Citizen of Ganja Hasan Huseynli. In addition, the head of the NGO Promoting Democracy, Emil Mammadov was sentenced to probation and released in the courtroom.

However, after the publication of the list the activist of the Popular Front Party Murad Adilov and the journalist Seymour Hazy were arrested.

On the list of the Monitoring Group of human rights organizations, after the 17 October pardon, there are 37 political prisoners, including 27, in respect of which there are already court judgments, and the rest are under investigation. -06D--