IPD Director calls to sue Azerbaijani prison bosses

Leila Yunus, Director of the Azerbaijani Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), has made a statement inviting to lodge claims against bosses of penitentiary establishments.

The text of the IPD's statement, now at the disposal of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, runs that the absence of such suits indicates fear of the inmates for the consequences of such actions, since they are completely deprived of civil rights and fully depend on the administration of colonies and prisons.

"A statement of claim filed against the prison boss is a threat of terrible torture for the inmate and an unpredictable outcome. However, such precedents should be created. Simultaneous submission by lawyers of claims against the most odious chiefs of the penitentiary systems, such as the head of the prison in Gobustan (permanent numerous complaints), Penitentiary Establishments No. 12 (where journalist Einullah Fatullaev is kept), and No. 14 (holding satirist Sakit Zakhidov) will allow to bring information about criminally punishable offences to the knowledge of the European Court and preserve health and lives of thousands of convicts," says the statement of the IPD.

In his turn, Mekhman Sadygov, head of the PR Department of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan, has refuted, in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the facts of torturing the inmates of penitentiary establishments. As he said, the places of serving punishments are open for monitoring by human rights entities, and their representatives are visiting inmates on a regular basis.