Number of political prisoners has doubled in Azerbaijan - human rights activists

Baku/20.04.23/Turan: The Union "For Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" (UFPPA) has published an updated list of political prisoners, which contains 182 names.

The list was compiled by the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy Leyla Yunus and the head of the Monitoring Center for Political Prisoners Elshan Hasanov.

Since the previous list, published in February, the number of political prisoners has almost doubled. So 89 new names appeared on the list and they are all believers, Hasanov said.

Those arrested are religious activists, members of the "Muslim Unity" movement and theologians.

Their arrests were accompanied by a propaganda campaign in the pro-government media that they were "members of the Iranian spy network."

At that, the vast majority are charged under Article 234.4.3 (large-scale drug trafficking) size," Hasanov said. According to him, the arrests are made against the background of diplomatic tensions in relations with Iran.

Note that 182 political prisoners are classified into 7 groups: 

"Journalists and bloggers" - 6 people;

"Members of opposition parties and movements" – 6 people;

"Political emigrants deported from Germany" – 5 people;

"Believers" – 118 people;

"Convicted in the Terter case" - 8 people;

"Convicted in the Ganja case" - 26 people;

"Life convicts" - 13 people.

In the group "Journalists and bloggers" there are Polad Aslanov, Abid Gafarov, Osman Rzayev; bloggers - Aslan Gurbanov, Rashad Ramazanov and Bakhtiar Hajiyev.

In the group "Members of Opposition parties and Movements" there are members of the "Party of People's Front of Azerbaijan" Niyameddin Akhmedov, Shahin Rzayev, Agil Gumbatov and Alizamin Salayev, as well as the leader of the "Citizens and Development Party" Ali Aliyev and activist Elchin Mamed.

In the group "Political Emigrants Deported from Germany" ithere are Pyunkhan Kerimli, Jafar Mirzoev, Malik Rzayev, Mutallim Orujev and Samir Ashurov.

Also, there are 118 people in the "Believers" group, including former head of the "Islamic Party" Ilham Aliyev, leader of the "Muslim Unity" movement Taleh Bagirzade and his assistant Abbas Huseynov, theologian Sardar Babayev, etc.

There are 26 people in the group of convicts in the "Ganja case".

There are 13 people in the "Life prisoners" group. Among them are six former officers of the special police unit convicted in connection with the 1995 mutiny, three former members of the "Garangush" unit that fought in 1992-1993 in Karabakh, and five convicted in the case of former Prime Minister Suret Huseynov.

After the abolition of the death penalty in 1998, the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment by a decision of the Parliament. However, the law is not retroactive. Therefore, they had to replace the death penalty with an alternative at that time maximum sentence – 15 years of imprisonment, according to human rights activists.

Another 8 people remain in prison in the "Terter case", despite the rehabilitation of 19 defendants in this case. -06D-