Corruption, torture, lawlessness take place in prisons, human rights activists

Baku/26.12.18/Turan: Most of the prisons in Azerbaijan are old buildings erected during the Soviet era. The laws in these institutions do not work fully. There is discrimination, corruption, lawlessness and torture against prisoners, stated the report "Conditions in places of detention and the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan", which was presented to the public today by the Center for the Protection of Political Prisoners (CPPP).

A member of this human rights structure, the writer ZumrudYagmur, noted that the purpose of preparing the report is to draw public attention to the situation in prisons, the facts of torture and corruption in these institutions.She noted that there are currently more than 150 political prisoners in the country.

The CPPP coordinator OgtayGulaliyev noted that the report was compiled on the basis of information from the families of prisoners, lawyers, reports of international organizations, stories of former political prisoners.At the same time, the representative of the CPPP themselves was prevented from visiting places of detention.

The Prison Service refused to provide information on the total number of prisoners, information on the costs of their maintenance.The overall situation in prisons is difficult. They are overcrowded and in many institutions, prisoners have to sleep in turns.

Among the positives Gyulaliyev called at the beginning of the process of building new institutions.

In addition, prisoners were entitled to regular telephone calls.However, the quality of prison food remains low.And this is despite the fact that as early as 2011, according to reports of international organizations, 8 euros were allocated per day for the food of each prisoner from the state budget.

Medical care for prisoners is also poor. Gyulaliyev also focused on spreading the practice of torture over prisoners, which even leads to a fatal case.

In particular, he pointed out the death of a blogger MehmanGalandarov and a resident of Gazakh region in the fall of this year in the local police in April 2017 in the Baku pre-trial detention center.

Numerous facts of torture are also reflected in the reports of international organizations.

The CPPP announced the names of 42 law enforcement officers involved in torture.

Gulaliyev also pointed out the fact of the death of eight soldiers arrested after the April 2016 fighting on suspicion of espionage. Some did not even let their relatives be buried. However, subsequently these charges were not confirmed and the criminal cases were closed on justification.

At the presentation of the report, the mother of one of the servicemen, ElchinGuliyev, who died in the Tartar region, spoke, and said that her son had been slandered and killed.The report also refers to kidnappings, when people are illegally detained and kept in custody for many days or even weeks without a court order.In particular, this happened with religious activist Ahsan Nuruzade, activist Fatima Movlamly, former head of the Gadabay region, Saleh Rustamli and others.

A separate chapter is devoted to the facts of corruption.

In particular, there is a "price list" for services and the exercise of rights guaranteed free by law.

Former political prisoner, journalist AvazZeynalli, pointed out that prisoners are not given clothes.

According to the journalist, he got his socks for the first time in prison only six months after his arrest.

Zeynalli proposed to include in the black list of violators of human rights - not only the presiding judges, but also other members of the judiciary, since they are all responsible for issuing custom sentences. -21С-