Committee to protect the rights of sentenced to life imprisonment appealed to the President

Baku/27.09.22/Turan: Today, the ommittee  to protect the rights of sentenced to life imprisonment discussed the difficult conditions of punishment for this category of prisoners, the participation of some of them in the first Karabakh war, the unbearable life of their families, and adopted an appeal to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The appeal emphasizes the 26-year stay in prison of war veterans Shafa Poladov, Arif Kazimov, Elchin Amiraslanov and others, also known in society as “Karabakh partisans” Mammad Mammadov (imprisoned for 20 years) and others. Prisoner Ali Guliyev and others are in prison for about 31 years. More than 21 convicts are listed, the punishment for which was unreasonably severe for their crimes. Most of these people were sentenced to death, but in 1998 this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The committee considers this decision illegal, since the law allowed replacing execution with a 15-year sentence.

The statement recalls the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which requires the state to restore civil peace and good relations in society.

"The release of those sentenced to life imprisonment will mean the triumph of humanism in the domestic politics of states," the authors of the appeal to the president believe.

In Azerbaijan, there are more than 270 life-sentenced prisoners, all of them were kept in the Gobustan closed-type prison, the conditions in which do not meet modern international requirements. The  construction of a new and modern indoor prison in the Umbaki settlement of the Gobustan region, wjhioch was announced  more than tn years ago,  is being delayed.—0—