Epress.am News from Armenia
Among the 92 prisoners pardoned on Dec. 26 by a decree by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, 3 were political prisoners, reports Turan news agency.
Released from prison was 20-year-old Jabbar Savalanli, a young activist with the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. According to Turan, he had been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison on charges of drug possession.
Also to be released is former OPON (riot police) commander Nizami Shakhmuradov, who was convicted in March 1995 after the suppression of the anti-government armed rebellion. For a long time he was hiding from the authorities abroad. But in 2007, he returned to Baku to attend his mother’s funeral, after which he surrendered to authorities. In 2008, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
Also pardoned was former Baku prosecutor Mamed Guliev’s driver Mekhman Mamedov. He was convicted in 2006 for 7 years on charges of a coup d’etat in 2000, which, according to investigators, was being prepared by the former prosecutor of Khatai district Mahir Javadov.
Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) Leila Yunus has expressed regret that “this pardon, as those of the past, did not solve the problem of political prisoners.” In her view, “this is an indication of the lack of political will by the government to solve the problem of political prisoners and the desire to continue to pursue a policy of repression against his opponents.”
According to Yunus, there are still more than 70 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.