In Azerbaijan, activist of "Yeni Fikir" denied CER

Today, in Baku, a travel session of the Nizami District Court was held at the high security penal institutions No. 1 of the Penitentiary Service of Azerbaijan and considered an application of Ruslan Bashirli, the head of the youth organization "Yeni Fikir" (New Thinking), about conditional early relief (CER).

Mr Bashirli was arrested in August 2005, accused of an attempt of a putsch and sentenced to seven years in prison. Under the legislation, a convict under this article may receive his CER after serving more than three quarters of his sentence, Takhir Khanaliev, Bashirli's advocate, in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The advocate has noted that Ruslan Bashirli has 11 months remained until the end of his sentence; therefore, he had every reason to get his CER; however, the court rejected the petition, referring, as said Khanaliev, to the negative characterization of the prisoner issued by the administration of the prison.
In his turn, the advocate stated the "legal inconsistency of the characterization, based on subjective approach." Mr Khanaliev has assured that Bashirli will continue fighting for his rights and will lodge a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Since the session was over late at night today, both the Nizami District Court and the Penitentiary Service were unavailable for comments.