President grants clemency

President Aliyev decreed Friday to pardon 54 prisoners, including the handicapped and sick, those above 65, and deserters.

According to President's office, 30 of the pardoned are those convicted of crimes against the independence, statehood and integrity. One was involved in the Lankaran developments in June-August of 1993 as part of an illegal armed detachment, 7 took part in a coup attempt in Ganja in October 1994, while 22 were convicted of an attempted takeover of power in March 1995.

Human rights groups seem to have fallen short of their expectations for the pardoning of former interior and defense ministers Isgandar Hamidov and Rahim Gaziyev, and the initiator of the so-called Talysh-Mughan republic Alikram Humbatov, who have not been released.*