Courts Biased in Considering Applications for Parole

Baku / 07.07.20 / Turan: The Baku Club for Human Rights (BCHR) has expressed concern about the negative practice of biased consideration of parole complaints.

  The analysis of numerous documents shows that often the administration of penitentiary institutions politicizes cases and characterizes the convicted person in a biased way, the statement says.

As an example, the case of the PFPA activist Babek Hasanov is mentioned.

He was arrested in May 2018 and subsequently sentenced to 3 years in prison in a trumped-up case on illegal financing of the PFPA.

Together with him several more people were convicted. Their fault was that they provided financial assistance to the families of political prisoners.

 On July 1, the Nizami court refused to release him on parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

The characterization of Hasanov stated that he was “prone to misconduct” and “in the course of educational conversations opposed the state with opposition views.”

“Is the activity of a penitentiary institution to clarify the political views of convicts? This characteristic is frankly politicized,” the statement said.

Release on parole in practice is decided not on the basis of the considerations of the court, but the subjective opinions of the guards, the statement said.

  The BCHR considers it necessary to carry out reforms in this area for the effective application of parole mechanisms and other types of mitigation of punishment. The BCHR also intends to track the review of Hasanov’s appeal and hopes that the trial will be objective.

The BCHR was created in May this year by human rights activist Rasul Jafarov and lawyer Javad Javadov. –06D-