Vice-speaker claims no commitments to release political prisoners

Vice-speaker of the Azerbaijan parliament Ziyafat Asgarov told a news conference Friday that Azerbaijan has never undertaken the commitment to release political prisoners when being admitted to the Council of Europe. "There are no political prisoners in Azerbaijan", he said.

"Actually, the commitment envisioned Azerbaijan's securing reconsideration of cases of alleged political prisoners on the list forwarded to the CE by Azeri human rights groups. The cases of I. Hamidov, R. Gaziyev and A. Humbatov are being reconsidered following the protest of the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan", Z. Asgarov underscored.