The five day autumn session of the PACE has ended, putting an end to arguments about whether there are political prisoner or prisoners of conscience in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani government insistently repeats that there is no political prisoner or prisoner of conscience in Azerbaijan, claiming none of the PACE-determined criteria may apply to alleged political prisoners or prisoners of conscience and that they were arrested for committing a crime.
The radical oppositionists reject this opinions, saying that a number of journalists, rights defenders and social media activists were put behind bars simply for their activities.
Allegedly there are 80 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. However pro-government rights defenders claim such prisoners to be up to 12.
According to Peace and Democracy Institute director Leyla Yunus, increased numbers of politically motivated arrests are related to political motives of the government.
The Parliamentary Assembly reaffirmed its support for the criteria based on PACE rapporteur Christopher Strasser's report, which regards a person deprived of his or her personal liberty as a 'political prisoner', if
(i) the detention is in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its Protocols. In particular, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom of assembly and association;
(ii) if the detention has been imposed for purely political reasons without connection to any offence;
(iii) if, for political motives, the length of the detention or its conditions are clearly out of proportion to the offence the person has been found guilty of or is suspected of;
(iv) if the detention is the result of proceedings which were clearly unfair and this appears to be connected with political motives of the authorities.
Political experts believe that the Azerbaijani government will ignore these criteria and may be forced to follow them only if they feel international pressure.
