17 June 2005, 11:57
PACE to discuss political prisoners in Azerbaijan
More than 30 leaders of Azerbaijani nongovernmental organisations and media addressed Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis and President Ilkham Aliyev of Azerbaijan with an appeal to stop politically motivated arrests in Azerbaijan.
A while ago, the government called on some NGOs to address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) with a proposal that discussion of the issue of political prisoners should be postponed until the summer session. In return, the government of Azerbaijan undertook to release about 40 political prisoners. A number of political prisoners were released indeed after that, but the problem remained unsolved.
The very practice of persecuting citizens on political bases remains, leading to more and more political prisoners. The authors of the appeal believe that Azerbaijan's obligations to the PACE consist not only in releasing political prisoners, but also in complete abandonment of politically motivated arrests and convictions, abandonment of illegal struggle against political opponents.
Mass arrests of potential participants in public meetings and fabrication of criminal cases against opposition activists have become flagrant facts of persecuting citizens on political bases over the past two months.
In an Interview for Radio Liberty, PACE rapporteur on political prisoners Malcolm Bruce said the report on the situation with political prisoners in Azerbaijan would not be removed from the PACE session agenda.
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Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent
