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A large number of people is released from prison and it rejoices, but there is still a huge number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, David Kramer, the former president of Freedom House, who is currently the Senior Director for Human Rights and Human Freedoms at McCain Institute, told Voice of America, according to Azadliq newspaper.

Kramer reminded that most of the released prisoners were not even acquitted. "Spouses Leyla and Arif Yunus are not allowed to leave the country for treatment," Kramer said noting that the Azerbaijani authorities have a lot to do to fulfill their commitments before the OSCE and the Council of Europe.

“The political prisoners must not become a subject to trade with in order to organize a meeting between the US President Barack Obama and Ilham Aliyev," he added.
Kramer also urged not to allow Aliyev, the Azerbaijani President, to enter the Oval Office and meet the US leader tête-à-tête.

According to him, Aliyev announced the start of repressions to prevent events similar to the Ukrainian “Maydan” from happening in Azerbaijan. However, the scale of these crackdowns is so wide, and they are so tough, that this turned into an unprecedented wave of repression in Azerbaijan. “Azerbaijan has turned into the most repressive country in the region,” Kramer said.

Meanwhile, local Turan news agency reports that the country's Prosecutor General, Zakir Garalov, is “angered” with the extremely severe sentence on the known human rights defender Intigam Aliyev. In this connection, the Prosecutor filed a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court.

Intigam Aliyev’s lawyer, Javad Javadov, wrote about this sensational information on his Facebook page adding that the cassation will be considered on March 28.

“Now the Prosecutor General declares that the sentence is too harsh and needs to be softened. The name of this theater of absurd is the legal system of Azerbaijan. The reason for this performance is the forthcoming visit of Ilham Aliyev to the United States, where an explanation for the crackdown on civil society will be demanded from him. According to diplomatic sources, none of the US administration will meet with Aliyev if he does not release all the political prisoners, including Intigam Aliyev, Ilgar Mammadov and Khadija Ismayilova,” emphasizes Turan.

In addition, according to the news agency, the process of adopting the bill Azerbaijan Democracy Act of 2015, which provides for the imposition of sanctions against the country's authorities, will be set in motion.

On 22 April 2015, Azerbaijani human rights defender and the leader of the Legal Education Society, Intigam Aliyev, was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months imprisonment under Articles 213.1 (tax evasion), 308.2 (abuse of power with grave consequences), 192.2 (illegal entrepreneurship) and 179.3.2 (embezzlement) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. Farid Nagiyev, the prosecutor, offered to condemn Aliyev to 10 years imprisonment in penal colony. Intigam Aliyev was arrested on 8 August 2014.

On March 17, Azerbaijan’s President IlhamAliyev signed a decree of pardon, due to which a part of the almost 100 political prisoners was released. 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 recognized 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.