Penitentiary institutions do not meet European standards

Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without political prisoners" presented today the report: "The situation in prisons, the problem of political prisoners and the challenges ahead." According to the head of the alliance Gyulalyev Oktay, a 32-page report consists of 12 chapters and covers three areas.

In particular,  prison conditions, ensuring their rights and the problem of political prisoners have been investigated.

On the first issue, the report says that besides jail in  Kurdakhani, insulators and all other places of detention  do not meet European standards, and the conditions there are bad - heating, air conditioning, food and water.

The prisoners are divided into "wealthy" and "poor." Depending upon this  the conditions are different.  For each prisoner  are intended  four square meters, but in such a space are  contained  two or three people. Corruption and bribery prosper in prison, and  prisoners should  give bribe  for meetings, phone calls, physical exercises.

There is a practice  to torture prisoners. The report named 10 officials involved in torture -former and current heads of  jail. The  facts of  the death of prisoners are not investigated. As the human rights violations  is the immediate  replacement of the death penalty which was repeal in 1998 to life imprisonment. Total of 128 people were convicted, of whom 43 died, 10 pardoned, and 78 - remain in custody.

Regarding the issue of political prisoners, in January 2013 there appeared 50 new arrested or convicted for political reasons. Their total number is 98. Most of them, 54 people,  are believers.

The report contains recommendations for the revision of the work of the Prison Service in accordance with European standards, the construction of new buildings, train new personnel, and the immediate release of political prisoners. -05C-