Rights activists call on PACE to get Baku to release political prisoners

International human rights organizations have called on the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to confirm the suspension of Azerbaijan's powers and establish criteria for restoring them, including the release of political prisoners and enforcement of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The «Caucasian Knot» has reported that in 2024, Azerbaijan saw intensification of repressions against journalists, human rights defenders and believers; and the number of political prisoners increased sharply. The police began applying harsher measures in conducting repressions; and the number of deaths among prisoners went up, the Monitoring Centre for Political Prisoners have stated.

On December 12, 2024, the Union "For Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan" updated the list of political prisoners; the number of which increased to 331. In 2024, the number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan reached its peak in 23 years of the country's membership in the Council of Europe.

In January 2024, the PACE adopted a resolution to limit the powers of the Azerbaijani delegation because of human rights violations in the country and the growing number of political prisoners. The Azerbaijani delegation left the PACE session, accusing the structure of double standards. Dozens of deputies thereof were declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan "refuses to cooperate" with international structures and does not try to eliminate "systemic human rights violations," the appeal states.

The petition mentions the criminal cases initiated against activists Afiyaddin Mamedov, Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, Rail Abbasov, Ilkhamiz Guliev, political scientist Azer Gasymly, human rights defenders Rufat Safarov and Anar Mamedli, researchers Igbal Abilov and Bakhruz Samedov, oppositional politicians Gubad Ibadoglu, Tofig Yagublu and Akif Gurbanov, as well as the journalists arrested in the cases of the Abzas Media, Toplum TV, Meydan TV, Kanal-13 and others.

The authors of the appeal note the need to act decisively to defend the values of the Council of Europe and protect the Azeri civil society.

The petition was signed by the Campaign to Stop Repressions in Azerbaijan, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Freedom Now, the Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Netherlands Helsinki Committee, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and others.

In his turn, Samed Seyidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE, has stated that the Azerbaijani side "has no intent to restore relations with the PACE under the current conditions."