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Two "lifers" died in Azerbaijan, and one of the prisoners committed suicide. The stress and violence that is experienced in condemned cells as well as healthcare problems turn the life sentence into a death penalty.

According to the Azerbaijani news agency "Turan", last Saturday in Kyurdahanskii detention unit an inmate Nijat Ibragimov from Salyan region of Azerbaijan committed suicide, told Emil Mammadov the head of the "Promoting Democracy" NGO acting in Salyan. According to him, Ibragimov committed suicide in his cell.

In the Penitentiary Service of Azerbaijani Justice Ministry they confirmed the fact of suicide. In the public relations department of the Penitentiary Service they stated that the causes of suicide are being investigated.

Ibragimov was arrested in September last year and on 28 December, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment under article 234.1 (illegal purchase or storage of narcotics or psychotropic substances without a purpose of selling in quantities exceeding necessary for personal consumption) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

As the Azerbaijani news agency "Salamnnews" reports in 2014 the deaths of the life sentenced continued in Azerbaijan, the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan informed the agency.

Thus, on January 10 in colony number 3, the 39-year-old Ibrahim oglu Elshan Ibrahimov died of tuberculosis, who was sentenced in 1995 and who spent nearly three years awaiting for execution.

On January 15, in Central Prison Hospital, died Kuzahmedov Tofig Yakubovich of throat cancer. He was arrested in 1994 and was held in detention for almost 20 years, including two years in condemned cells in Bailov prison. He died 6 days after being transferred from prison to hospital.

Thus, of the 128 condemned man, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in February 1998, died already 42, which is every third. There is reason to believe that at the end of the year may die three more former death row inmates, the article reads.

"E. Ibragimov’s and T. Kuzahmedov’s premature deaths from disease raise many questions. In particular, about the registration of terminally ill prisoners which has been practicing a few years ago, as well as the duration of the "tariff-time" required to apply for parole. Today it makes 25 years for all lifers, regardless of the type of the crime committed and their personal qualities.

Stress and violence, experienced at the death rows, the healthcare problems, make this opportunity illusory, and for criminals arrested at age of 50 and older, a life sentence actually becomes a slow death," the article reads.

The U.S. State Department report published in May 2013 states about tortures and ill-treatment in police and military prisons of Azerbaijan, as a result of which died at least 4 people.