More than 200 political prisoners in Azerbaijan - human rights activists

Baku/31.07.23/Turan: The "Union for Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan" (UFPPA) on 31 July released an updated list of 204 people.

Note that the previous list of the human rights structure was published on 20 April and included 182 people.

Twelve people were removed from the list, some of them falling under the May pardon or released at the end of their sentences.

At the same time, 34 new names were added to the list.

Among them are opposition politician and scientist-economist, chairman of the Azerbaijan Party of Democracy and Welfare Gubad Ibadoglu, former MP, public figure and businessman Nazim Beydemirli, member of the Party of People's Front of Azerbaijan Elkhan Aliyev.  The other new faces on the list are believers arrested in April-July on charges of drug trafficking. Total number of believers among political prisoners has reached 147.

It ought to be noted that 204 political prisoners are classified into 7 groups.

In the first "journalists and bloggers" group there are 5 people, including Polad Aslanov, Osman Narimanoglu, as well as bloggers Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, Rashad Ramazanov and Aslan Gurbanov.

In the group "Members of opposition parties and movements" there are 7 persons, including activists of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan party - Alizamin Salayev, Niyameddin Ahmedov, Shahin Hajiyev, Agil Humbatov, as well as three new persons mentioned above - member of the same party Elkhan Aliyev, head of ADP Gubad Ibadoglu, and former MP Nazim Beydemirli.

In the group "political emigrants deported from Germany" there are 5 persons.

In the group of believers became 147 people.

7 people from the Terter case and 22 from the "Ganja case" remain on the lists.

Another 11 political prisoners are serving life sentences.

These individuals were arrested in the mid-1990s in connection with the OPON mutiny and other offences and sentenced to death. After the death penalty was abolished, they were automatically commuted to life imprisonment by parliamentary decision, although at the time of their arrest the alternative to execution was 15 years in prison. Human rights defenders believe that since the law is not retroactive, these individuals should have been released.

The UFPPA list has been compiled by Leyla Yunus, director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy and head of the Political Prisoners Monitoring Centre Elshan Hasanov, since November 2018. For the first time, more than 200 people were on the list. -06B-