Life convicts appeal to the President

76 life convicts serving their sentences in the Gobustan prison, addressed to the President, the Parliament, the Ombudsman, and the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan has no political prisoners."

In the address they ask promote equitable solution of their problem. They believe that the life sentence was handed down to them unjustly and illegalyl and ask  the head of state to take into account their long-term imprisonment.

On February 10, 1998, the Parliament adopted a law banning the death penalty in the country. According to the law, 128 prisoners sentenced to death earlier, were replaced the penalty by life imprisonment. Moreover, such a decision was made not by the courts.

"The legislative body, the Milli Majlis, appropriated powers of the court, and sentenced without trial to life sentence, which is contrary to the laws of Azerbaijan and international legal norms, as well as the European Convention.

April 6, 2007 PACE adopted a resolution number 1545, which states that the problems arising in connection with the elimination of the death penalty, as well as the case of each of the lifers should be considered anew. On the basis of the principle of "the law is not retroactive," there should be applied the appropriate punishment.

"Dear President, currently of 128 lifetime prisoners survived 73. Among them there are people who have reached 70 and even 80 years. There are those who have spent 19-20 years in jail.”

40 life prisoners died and 11 people were pardoned. Among them, there are Surat Huseynov, Muzammil Abdullayev, Rahim Gaziyev, Alikram Hummatov and others. -03D04-