11:58, 7 July 2008

In Azerbaijan, Insanov's advocates complain of their client's custody conditions

Advocates of Ali Insanov, ex-Minister of Public Health of Azerbaijan, who is serving his imprisonment, have applied to the European Court for Human Rights because of bad custody conditions of their client at the Penitentiary Establishment No. 13.

Advocate Togrul Babaev has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Mr Insanov is kept in "inhuman conditions" in a barrack "without gas, water and electricity" together with 28 other prisoners.

Mr Babaev has reminded that the European Court for Human Rights has already accepted a complaint on the ex-Minister's case related to his unfair trial.

However, Mekhman Sadykhov, head of the PR Department of the Penitentiary Service of Azerbaijan, has rejected the advocate's statement. According to his version, "Insanov is kept not in the barrack, but at a hostel, possessing all the necessary conditions for keeping prisoners." As to the number of prisoners kept in one room, according to Mr Sadykhov, their number "meets the approved standards."

Author: Faik Medzhid, CK correspondent