Speaker brushes PACE reproaches aside

Chairman of Milli Maclis (Azerbaijani parliament) Murtuz Alasgarov met members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) monitoring committee on Wednesday. Azeri speaker stressed that Azerbaijan had fulfilled part of its commitments to the Council of Europe (CoE).
The mission, including CE Vice Presidents Andreas Gross and George Clarefight, as well as Danish MP Soren Sonderguard, was visiting Azerbaijan until February 14 to examine the observance of the rights of prisoners who the Council of Europe considers to be political, but Azerbaijani authorities do not.
During the meeting, PACE monitoring committee member George Clarefight voiced a wish to swiftly finalize legal proceedings over political prisoners. He emphasized that cases of other political prisoners, save three, had not been reconsidered.
"There are politically motivated arrests even after Azerbaijan's admission to the Council of Europe, which confirm Azerbaijan's failure to meet its commitments to the Council. You, as speaker of parliament, should raise this issue and attend to human rights."
In reaction to the political prisoners issue, Murtuz Alasgarov, for his part, asked the CoE experts: "You have invented the term political prisoner, does it have any legal basis? Your criteria for what constitutes political prisoners does not satisfy me. I don't consider those people to be political prisoners."
Also voicing his objection to a political prisoners list compiled by NGOs, the Azeri  speaker demanded an impartial and unprejudiced approach. He said that the political prisoners issue would not be discussed at Milli Maclis as there were no political prisoners in this country.
Moreover, the speaker regretted that no questions were posed concerning refugees, though there were one million refugees in Azerbaijan, whose human rights have been violated as a result of the Armenian occupation.
Andreas Gross asked Alasgarov’s position regarding the transfer of some of the speaker's powers to the prime minister last year and criticized changes to the charter and regulations of Azerbaijani parliament Milli Maclis.
As a result of the changes, parliament's sessions per month has been halved.Without responding to the question, but in reply to the criticism, the Azerbaijani Speaker
has said no international organization has a right to interfere with such deeply internal affair of a sovereign state as is working regime of legislative body. Nevertheless, Mr. Alasgarov pointed out that holding two sessions a month is compulsory minimum only. If needed, parliament may convene more meetings.
He said that a decrease in the number of parliament sessions had to do with parliament's internal regulations and was not abnormal.
During the visit, members of the mission did not make any statement on the situation with Azerbaijan. The CE mission will state its opinion in documents that is to be prepared after their return to the Strasbourg, France.  Possibly, it will be a joint report to be presented for consideration of the PACE Bureau, which may include it in the agenda of a CE session, if necessary.
Opposition meetings
Following a meeting with leaders of the Musavat Party, People's Front Party (reformers), Democratic Party, and National Independence Party at the Greek embassy to Azerbaijan on Wednesday, PACE co-rapporteurs on Azerbaijan Andreas Gross and George Clarefight declined to answer journalist's questions, explaining that their work had not yet been completed. According to secretary general of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party Sardar Calaloglu, during the meeting they exchanged views on the issue of political prisoners. The party leaders described the release of a group of political prisoners under CE pressure as positive, though they said that to be freed, pardoned prisoners had been compelled to assume accountability for crimes they had not committed and to apply to the president for pardons. The party leaders suggested that political amnesty be declared to allow citizens to prove their innocence. In addition, they discussed problems of employees who are dismissed then reinstated by the courts, but remain barred from the workplace because of their political views.
The CE experts described failure to return citizens' to employment as a serious problem. The experts said they would tackle this issue more actively and continue efforts to decrease the number of political prisoners.
Political prisoners
Mission member George Clarefight told journalists that positive changes were observed in Azerbaijan. Whereas previously PACE estimated the number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan at 700, today this number is estimated at 300, he said.
The working group met with political prisoners in the Qobustan jail, including ex-Defense Minister Rahim Qaziyev, ex-Interior Minister Isgandar Hamidov and former self-proclaimed 'Talis-Mugan republic' head Aliakram Humbatov. They were interested in the conditions of prisoners and progress of their cases in the court.