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Azerbaijan’s President IlhamAliyev signed a decree of pardon due to which a part of the almost 100 political prisoners was released, according to the local Turan news agency.

According to the report, Rashad Hasanov, Mohammed Azizov, RashadatAkhundov, activists of the movement NIDA; TofigYagublu and YadigarSadigli, deputy chairmen of the party Musavat; rights defenders RasulJafarov, TalehKhasmammadov, AnarMammadli and HilalMammadov; oppositionist NeimatPanahli; blogger Omar Mammadov; SirajKarimli, who was recognised a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International; AkifMuradverdiyev, former head of the Executive Office of the President; and the journalist ParvizHashimliare among the pardoned prisoners.

The agency reports that 148 people were pardoned in total. According to the decree, 137 people were freed from serving the rest of the prison term, six people were freed from serving the remainingpart of penal labour, and five were freed from paying fine.

Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today ruled on the case of RasulJafarov, who had beensentenced to six years in prison on charges of committing economic crimes. The ECHR held that there have been violations of the Article 5 (Right to liberty and security), 18 (Limitation on use of restrictions on rights) and 34 (Individual applications) of the European Convention on Human Rights against the rights defender.

“Jafarov’s detention and arrest in 2014 came against the backdrop of a toughening of the legislation about the NGOs’activities andthe toughening of the authorities’ policy against the civil society. High officials came up with a number of statements and pro-government media published articles accusing the locals NGOs and their leaders (including Jafarov) of treason and work for foreign states,” Turan writes.

The ECHR held that the facts the Office of the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan based upon were insufficient for incriminating Jafarov with the criminal offences, namely, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion and abuse of power. Subsequently, the Court held that the government of Azerbaijan must pay Jafarov 25,000 euros in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and 7,448 euros in respect of costs and expenses.

Haqqin.az reports that Azerbaijani rights defenders have assessed the release of the people from the political prisoners’list positively. In particular, the head of the Society for Women’s Rights, Novella Jafaroglu, said more political prisoners will be released soon. She expressed hope that IlgarMammadov, IntigamAliyev and Khadija Ismayilovawill be released, as well.

The website also reports that Baku Court of Appeal has ruled to release Rauf Mirkadirov, a well-known Azerbaijani journalist from the newspaper Zerkalo. The court used Article 70 ofthe Criminal Code of Azerbaijan to cancel the decision to take the journalist into custody.

According to Turan, the court substituted the 6-year sentence of the journalist with a conditional release for 5 years.

Baku bureau of RFE/FL reports that Mirkadirov’s mother, RafigaIsayeva, made a statement after the trial. She said her son has healthissues; in particular, Mirkadirovsuffers from headaches and takes medicine.

On 23 December 2015, a working group for compiling a comprehensive list of political prisoners issued a consecutive list of the Azerbaijani citizens regarded as political prisoners in the country. The list had 93 names, including the investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, rights defenders Leyla and ArifYunuses, IntigamAliyev, oppositionist IlgarMammadov, the leader of the Muslims Unity Movement Shia theologian TalehBagirzage and others. They are allremaining in custody so far. 

Earlier, a number of international human rights organisations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the US Department of State have repeatedly called on the authorities of Azerbaijan to release all the political prisoners, stop the persecutions of the dissidents and the crackdowns onthe civil society.