Proposed by the interaction of two working groups on political prisoners

 On 18 October a  new list of political prisoners out of 166 people was presented to the public, which is supported by public figures, civil society, the Popular Front Party, National Council of Democratic Forces and others.

The list was presented to the head of the Institute for Peace and Democracy Leyla Yunus (on Skype), the coordinator of the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without political prisoners" Oktay Gyulalyev and head of political prisoners Monitoring Center Elshan Hasanov.

A day earlier, a list of 94 political prisoners announced another working group, which includes prominent public figures Khadija Ismail, Shahvalyad Chobanoglu, Intigam Aliyev, Rasul Jafarov and others.

The difference in the number of political prisoners was due to the method of definition. "We recognize the political prisoners about whom there is the investigation materials or judicial decisions, and everyone else who has the potential to be a political prisoner under monitoring," said the journalist Khadija Ismail.

The group  of Leyla Yunus also recognizes political prisoners  who falls under five criteria defined by the Council of Europe. "We have included to the  list  all those arrested in the "Nardaran case", although    there are no specific materials about some of them," said Ogtay Gyulalyev, noting that the very "Nardaran case" has been recognized a political one.

In the  list "166"   there are  names of  78 "Nardaranis", which is by two times greater than  in the list of "94." However, the parties do not challenge each other, marking a difference in calculation methods.

 According to the director of  Turan  news agency Mehman Aliyev, the subsequent trials  in the case of residents of  Nardaran  will inevitably bring together the two lists, as a group of "94" will have a documented reason for the inclusion of the remaining detainees.

At the presentation the chairman of the Popular Front Party Ali Kerimli suggested to allocate separately the list of arrested members of his party. "Our party is subjected to the strongest reprisals, and it requires special attention," he said, noting that in jail are 11 members of the party. This remark was taken into account.

The head of the National Council Jamil Hasanli urged democrats, Islamists, members of other political and religious movements  to unite  to defend the rights of all who have been illegally arrested or persecuted.

Leyla Yunus who participated  at today’s presentation via Skype particularly emphasized the need to identify the persons involved in the illegal arrest, torture, unlawful judicial decisions for the purpose of prosecution.

As a result of discussions of the report  the panelists formed a  single opinion  about the need for cooperation between the two working groups for a common goal – the release of all political prisoners.—0—