14:40, 10 February 2004

Political prisoners go on hunger strike in Bailovskaya prison

On 9 February, leaders of opposition political parties, arrested after the presidential elections of 15-16 October 2003, went on an indefinite hunger strike in the Bailovskaya prison. According to the protesters' lawyers, the political leaders will be joined by another fifty members of opposition parties, who are held in jail under inhumane conditions and suffer various forms of verbal and physical abuse by the police.

Chairs of the Musavat Party Ibragim Ibragimli and Sulkhaddin Akper, and Secretary General of the Democratic Party Sardar Jalaloglu will be unable to take part in the protest because of serious health problems caused by multiple beatings.

The main demands of the oppositionists are: to speed up the investigation into the disturbances of 15-16 October and the handover of criminal cases to courts, and to hold the court hearings in large rooms, in the presence of the local and foreign mass media; and to oblige the authorities to fulfill all the recommendations by the Council of Europe and OSCE concerning human rights following the election of the new Azerbaijan president.

Source: Prima News Agency