Azerbaijan: new human rights structure set up in support of political prisoners

The Centre in Defence of Political Prisoners (CDPP) was established on January 27 on the basis of the working group earlier created by Leyla Yunus, the Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners" and the Monitoring Centre of Political Prisoners. According to estimates of rights defenders, today Azerbaijan has 167 political prisoners.

"We decided to transform our working group into a separate public structure in order to involve well-known civil society activists for a more systemic and efficient work in defence of the rights of political prisoners," Oktay Gyulyalyev, the head of the Alliance "Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Mr Gyulyalyev was elected the coordinator of the CDPP; and Leyla Yunus – the person in charge of international relations. The coordinator will be replaced every three months.

The founding sitting of the CDPP announced the updated list of political prisoners, earlier compiled on October 18, 2016. Abulfaz Bunyatov, a figurant in the so-called "Nardaran case" was removed from the list, as he was released from custody because of his poor health condition.

At the same time, eight persons were added to the list.

"We need to consolidate efforts to attract public attention to the problem of political prisoners," said Talekh Khasmamedov, a rights defender.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.