A new prison for convicted of serious crimes may be put into operation in 2023

Baku/14.11.22/Turan: "Next year we will move to a new prison for life prisoners, with good conditions," a prisoner of the Gobustan prison, known as "covered", in which criminals convicted of serious crimes, told Turan. There are about 300 life-sentenced prisoners in this prison. Those sentenced to long terms of imprisonment and prisoners transferred to Gobustan from other prisons, punished for violating prison rules, are also serving there.

The same prisoner told Turan that in the new prison each cell will have its own courtyard under the open (barred) sky, in which prisoners can stay as long as they want. At present, in the Gobustan prison, the convict is entitled to one hour of walking in a small courtyard without a roof, with a bar over his head.

This prisoner answered Turan's questions about the conditions of detention in the old Gobustan prison with the words: "everything is fine here, there are no complaints ...". Other people could be heard talking on the phone, possibly the guards. And according to the head of a human rights organization specializing in the problems of life-sentenced prisoners, Akif Nagy, the conditions of detention in Gobustan prison are terrible, they receive information about this from the parents of convicts.

It is known that a new prison for the category of those convicted of serious crimes is being built in the Umbaki settlement of the Garadagh region. The land plot for construction was allocated in 2007. The village of Umbaki has long been known as the location of a leper jail - an indoor medical institution where healthy strangers are not allowed to enter.

In a written response to the UN Committee against Torture, the government of Azerbaijan reported in 2009 that “the construction of a new prison near the city of Baku (Umbaki settlement, Karadag region) is underway, where persons sentenced to imprisonment and sentenced to life imprisonment will be kept "Conditions will be created in the new prison in accordance with international standards. The modern infrastructure of these institutions, along with keeping convicts in cell-type rooms, favors these persons to study, useful work and sports, and to be sufficiently outdoors."

The head of the public relations department of the service, Mehman Sadihov, in an interview with Turan, refused to say the date for the commissioning of a new prison for those convicted of grave crimes, since, according to him, construction continues, "it is impossible to say anything definite now. Next year, he added , there will be a message from the Ministry of Justice about the new prison." M. Sadihov did not refute the statement about commissioning in 2023.

The reason for the often tense relations between prisoners and guards is the abundance of free time for the former, which has nothing to do. Azerbaijani prisoners do not have working conditions, with the possibility of earning. In 2018, M. Sadikhov told the press that there is no production in the Gobustan covered prison, but it is provided for in a new prison being built in the Umbaki village of the Garadagh district of the capital. According to him, the Gobustan prison was built in the early 90s of the last century.

"A lot could change with the commissioning of a new prison in the village of Umbaki, where they promise to create more "European" conditions, but it is postponed from year to year," human rights activist Eldar Zeynalov told the press.

Director of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan Eldar Zeynalov wrote his expert opinion for Turan on the reason for the construction of a new prison for "life prisoners".

According to him, the reason declared for the public is the inclusion of the petroglyphs of the Gobustan Reserve, which is located near the Gobustan prison, in the UNESCO list of cultural heritage. Baku considered that the proximity of the prison to the object from the UNESCO list is wrong, tourists will not like it. Therefore, a clause on the transfer of the Gobustan prison was included in the decree on the creation of the Open-Air Museum in Gobustan.

However, the reasons for not repairing or expanding the old prison, but building a new one, are much deeper. The current prison in the village. Gobustan, under which the old colony was adapted, does not meet international standards for life imprisonment. This is noted by all visitors to this prison from reputable international organizations such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. If initially they were only concerned about the overcrowding of the cells, the quality of medical care and nutrition, the death rate from diseases and suicides, then in the future these problems lost their sharpness, but other problems also arose.

Thus, the rather liberal Code for the Execution of Punishments (CEP) on a number of points relating to life prisoners is not being implemented. For example, CEP defines 6 main means of correcting convicts. Of these, four: socially useful work, general education, vocational education and training, social influence - do not apply to life prisoners due to their strict isolation, motivated precisely by a life sentence. All that remains is the regime and educational work, which is carried out by "specialists" in uniform.

Life prisoners today cannot study and work, their contacts with the outside world are limited mainly to visits with relatives. At the same time, nowhere is there a direct ban on distance education, and labor, according to CEP, is not only a right, but also a duty of convicts. Moreover, not so long ago, the head of state even ordered the opening and expansion of production sites in penitentiary institutions with the involvement of private capital, but this direct instruction remained without an adequate response.

The rights of prisoners declared by the CEP, such as the right to serve a sentence in conditions of respect for a person’s personality, the right to rest, the right to participate in the performance of religious rites, become a fiction, taking into account the overload of cells, a short walk in space without sports equipment, and the inability to visit a mosque etc. But what about the right to spend a certain amount of money in a prison stall or call relatives in a rural area or abroad, if the prisoner does not have this money, as well as work that could help earn them?

Cell overcrowding also remains a problem. In the philistine understanding, the cell is overcrowded only when the prisoners do not have enough sleeping places. But the European criterion is the size of the living area of ​​6-7 square meters per person. At one time, the same standard existed in the USSR for ordinary apartments (but 2.5 sq m was allocated for cameras). In our country, according to the Code, 4 square meters are provided for ordinary cells and 5 square meters for prison hospital wards.

All claims of this kind (I note that they are fully substantiated by the articles of the CEP) collide with arguments about the technical unsuitability of the current prison for work, sports, or study. A number of improvements are promised in the new Umbaki prison. For example, that the cells will be larger, each of them will have its own exercise yard, where you can walk and play sports for hours. That life-sentenced prisoners will be kept not only by 1-2 people, but also by 3-4 in a cell. That lifers will have jobs and education, etc.

The question is, why, then, with the commissioning of a new prison for lifers has been dragging on for 15 years?  Only this year they put into operation the same "long-term construction" - a jail for women and teenagers. So far, no new prisons have been built in Lankaran and Ganja. Moreover, several preliminary dates have already been called, and all of them have not been observed. It is clear that from year to year military spending is growing, and so is inflation.

In order to build new prisons, it is necessary to save on something, but out of habit, they save not on administrative expenses or the salaries of deputies, but on prisoners. Like, they now have where to sleep and what to eat, and humanistic "excesses" can tolerate. It is this attitude towards ordinary people that is the main problem that slows down reforms, and not only in the penitentiary sector. If the deputies propose to introduce the death penalty so as not to feed the life prisoners, then they are unlikely to enthusiastically meet the idea of ​​building new, more humane and useful for society prisons.

Another problem related to the attitude towards lifers is the issue of their release. At one of the trials, where I defended the right of a young life-sentenced to continue higher education, the judge asked with curiosity: “What does he need it for - after all, he won’t get out of prison until he dies?” - and refused. Although the servant of Themis knew perfectly well that life prisoners could be released both by pardon - after 10 years, and on parole - after serving 25 years.

Next February will mark exactly 25 years of the exclusion of the death penalty from the Criminal Code, which means that among the former suicide bombers there will not be a single one who would not have the right to ask for early release. But no one is released early, although there are life prisoners who have spent more than 30 years in prison. Only a few were released on pardon. I mention this because from 1998 to 2021, the number of those sentenced to life imprisonment averaged 12 per year. If we do not release those who deserve it, then in 8 years there will be 100 more life prisoners. And in order not to build another prison in 25 years, it is necessary to release (or transfer to ordinary colonies for a specific period) more life-sentenced prisoners than is being done now.

For example, why don't the authorities show mercy to the life-sentenced OPON members or volunteer fighters who have already served more than 25 years?" concluded Eldar Zeynalov, Director of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan.