Ilgar phenomenon

The statesman of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to life imprisonment, and spent 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid, repeatedly rejecting the offer of freedom in exchange for refusing to fight.The human rights activist spent 17 years out of 27 in solitary confinement, where he had a right to write only one letter and one meeting only during six months. The conditions of his maintenance, of course, were far from ideal."In prison, I loved working with rubbish. Sometimes there were scraps of newspapers. We did not have newspapers in prison, so I took these scraps, cleaned them, and in the evening I read them quietly in the cell. It's unlikely that I ever appreciated the press so much,"Mandela recalled.

Despite all the efforts to dislodge the opponent, the authorities had to release him from prison, and soon afterhe became president. Later Mandela said: "In my country, you first go to jail, and then become president."

Complaining of the absence of the Azerbaijani Mandela, many representatives of the country's independent sector forget about Ilgar Mammadov. The other day the chairman of the opposition ReAL Party marked his 48th birthday in prison, where he is being kept for six years on false accusations. So far, no leader of the opposition party has been deprived of his liberty for so long. International organizations have recognized Ilgar Mammadov as a political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, but the authorities still refuse to release from prison a person whose rights to freedom have been acknowledged and confirmed by two decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.

Prisons in Azerbaijan differ little from the South African jails of the 1970s and 1980s. The statements by the authorities that the places of detention in Azerbaijan have been brought in line with European standards, remain so only in words and on paper. Torture, pressure, often absence of water and medicines, fees became the norm in places of detention, as evidenced by reports of human rights organizations. Six years in such conditions require special restraint and will. Despite repeated proposals to write a petition for pardon, Ilgar Mammadov refused to do so.

Mammadov"s companions celebrated his birthday by releasing colorful balloons around the prison in which he is kept. It's unlikely that Mammadov saw these balloons, but he will learn about them, and this support will give him extra strength. He will need the forces. It is excluded that Mammadov, like Mandela, will spend 27 years in prison, Azerbaijan is not yet a country of apartheid. However, in such stories the final is predictable.