Situation in Azerbaijan's prisons is depressing - human rights defenders

Baku/12.04.21/Turan: Many Azerbaijani prisons are overcrowded, most do not meet modern standards, they do not feed well, and you have to pay for everything that is required by law. Torture of convicts also remains an urgent problem, reads the report of the human rights organization Center for Monitoring Political Prisoners on the rights of prisoners in places of detention in Azerbaijan.

Despite the decrease in the number of prisoners in Azerbaijan in recent years, statistical indicators do not reflect a qualitative change in the situation, said the head of the Center for Monitoring Political Prisoners Elshan Hasanov.

The report points out that almost all of the prisons were built in the mid-20th century, and some even under Stalin, which do not meet European penitentiary standards. The jails are overcrowded with prisoners. In two-story barracks, 350-500 and more people are kept. Sleeping quarters in barracks the size of basketball courts.

Bunk beds are installed in 8-10 rows. Each room contains 40-80 people. There are not enough toilets and showers in jails. Often, patients with infectious and viral diseases, in particular hepatitis C, tuberculosis, HIV-infected people infected with COVID-19, are not isolated from other prisoners.

Due to the low quality of medical care, the death rate of prisoners is high; there are cases of suicide and suicide attempts. The report points to the practice of torturing prisoners, which also goes unpunished.

There is a particularly biased attitude towards political prisoners. Thus, in the Gobustan prison, the leaders of the Muslim Unity Movement Tale Bagirzade, Abbas Huseynov, Jabbar Jabbarov were tortured.

The leader of the Islamic Party Movsum Samedov was unreasonably sent to karts. The adviser to the head of the Popular Front Party Mamed Ibrahim, not long before the expiration of the sentence, was planted with a knife and his prison sentence was extended, the study said.

Hasanov believes that the international community should increase attention to the situation in prisons and influence the government to improve the situation. “The latest report of the Council of Europe reflects a number of problems. However, it is written softly, diplomatically, but in reality the situation is much depressing,” Hasanov said.

Azerbaijan remains among the leading countries in this indicator in Europe, according to the study of the Council of Europe on criminal statistics, published on April 8. In 2019, 93 people died in the penitentiary institutions of Azerbaijan (two suicides). The death rate per 10,000 prisoners in 2019 was 44.3, well above the European average.

The average amount spent per prisoner per day in 2019 across the CE countries was 64.4 euros. In Azerbaijan, the total budget of the prison administration in 2019 was 55,091,752 euros. The average amount per prisoner per day was 7.9 euros.

The Political Prisoners Monitoring Center was established in October 2014 by a group of former “prisoners of conscience”. —06D-