President pardons convicted journalists

President Aliyev has decreed to pardon three incarcerated journalists, Shahbaz Aliyev, Elmar Husseinov and Shahlar Mammadov, who were sentenced in September.

The journalists have been excused following numerous appeals from MPs, journalistic organizations, mass media and the convicted proper. The President is said to have made the decision out of respect for the traditions of humanism and democracy, personalities of the convicted and their family problems. The decree urges the journalists to abide by ethical norms.

The released journalists held a news conference at the press club, in which they said that neither bodily nor moral harm had been incurred on them while behind bars.*