Alleged political prisoners not pardoned

The Azeri community commended the absence of the names of former defense minister Rahim Gaziyev and Colonel Alikram Humbatov on the list of inmates pardoned with a presidential decree on the eve of the New Year.

The Azeri public were concerned with the possible release of the two under pressure from the Council of Europe, which considers them political prisoners based on various lists of political convicts submitted by some human rights groups in Azerbaijan and recommends the Azerbaijan government to free them. Azerbaijan people accuse the two of the demise of thousands of people and high treason, and their involvement in espionage has been proven.

The President’s decree pardons 87 prisoners, remits 57 inmates, halves the imprisonment terms of 29 convicts, and frees a conditionally sentenced Israeli citizen.

54 of the graced were convicted on charges of activities against the independence, statehood and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, 10 were involved in the coup attempt of October 1994, 39 special troopers were convicted of the attempt to topple the government in March 1995, one was enmeshed in the separatist activities in the south of Azerbaijan in 1993, and 4 were perpetrators of grave crimes committed in Nakhchivan in October 1993 and August 1994 as part of illegal armed groupings.*