Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on the situation of political prisoners in Azerbaïdjan

Doc. 9223

24 September 2001

Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on the situation of political prisoners in Azerbaïdjan

Communication from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 765^th bis meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (21 September 2001)

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe welcomes the news that the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan has issued on 17 August 2001 a decree pardoning 89 political prisoners, 66 of whom have been released and 23 of whom have had their sentences reduced. This is a significant step forward in the development of democracy in Azerbaijan, as a result of the independent experts’ report to the Secretary General, the Committee of Ministers’ efforts through its Monitoring Group GT-SUIVI.AGO and the Parliamentary Assembly’s monitoring procedure.

The Committee of Ministers nevertheless points out that on joining the Council of Europe Azerbaijan undertook to release or grant a new trial to all political prisoners, identified as such by the experts, some of whom are still in prison, in particular Mr. Iskander Gamidov, Mr. Alikram Gumbatov and Mr Raqim Gaziyev, expressly mentioned in Parliamentary Assembly Opinion No. 222 (2000). The Committee of Ministers however welcomes the decision of the government of Azerbaijan to grant a new trial to Mr. Gamidov. It renews its request to the Azerbaijan Government to persevere in its efforts to honour its obligations to the full. It hopes that the 10^th anniversary of the independence of Azerbaijan on 18 October 2001 will afford the opportunity for a further gesture of reconciliation and will provide a solution to a problem which should not exist in a Council of Europe member state.