Council of Europe calls upon Ilkham Aliyev to settle problem of political prisoners once and for all

We call your attention to the declaration made by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers on the latest pardoning decree of Azerbaijan President Ilkham Aliyev:

The Committee of Ministers welcomes the recent Decree of the President of Azerbaijan on "Pardoning of a number of persons sentenced to imprisonment" by which 129 prisoners were given their freedom, 28 of whom appeared on the list of 716 cases examined by the Secretary General's Independent Experts on alleged political prisoners, Messrs S. Trechsel and E. Alkema.

The Committee appreciates the fact that this is the second extensive pardon by the new President of Azerbaijan who, since his election in October 2003, has freed more than 80 people whose names appear on the Council of Europe list.

The Committee particularly welcomes the setting free of two more pilot cases and encourages the President of Azerbaijan to continue in this vein of reconciliation and democratic reform. This is in line with the intentions he communicated during his discussions with the delegation of the Committee of Ministers' Monitoring Group, the GT-SUIVI.AGO which visited Baku in February of this year.

The Committee of Ministers trusts that this file will be closed once and for all before September of this year as requested by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as well as by the Committee of Ministers after its consideration of the latest report of the GT-SUIVI.AGO.

Strasbourg, March 24, 2004

Editors note: See also the article "Azerbaijan political prisoners set up political movement".