Hammerberg insists on Azerbaijan's obeying to PACE's guidelines

Thomas Hammerberg, Higher Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights, plans to visit Azerbaijan after the presidential election. Mr Hammerberg told about it in his conversation with a group of Azerbaijani journalists in Strasbourg.

To a question about his actions to release arrested journalists, Thomas Hammerberg has answered that during his previous visit he discussed with Ilham Aliev the issue of releasing Einullah Fatullaev, and hoped that the journalist would be pardoned. "Unfortunately, this has not happened," Mr Hammerberg said.

The Commissioner has also expressed his attitude to Novruzali Mamedov's case, having noted that the Council of Europe "is highly dissatisfied" with the sentence to the head of the Talysh Cultural Centre.

"We insist that our recommendations were followed," Mr Hammerberg said. "The country that ignores human rights can't be stable. As to the freedom of speech, there're special recommendations of the Commissioner for Human Rights. We'll use our contacts to solve the problem."

According to Hammerberg, the authorities of Azerbaijan "have done little" on recommendations of Strasbourg, which is disturbing.