Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire Doc. 10026 12 January 2004 Political prisoners in Azerbaijan Report Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Rapporteur: Mr Malcolm Bruce, United Kingdom, Liberal, Democratic and Reformers' Group Summary In its Resolution 1272 (2002), th e Assembly urges the Azerbaijani authorities to resolve the problem of political prisoners, stressing that the existence of political prisoners is incompatible with Azerbaijan’s membership of the Council of Europe. The Rapporteur notes that despite the adoption of this resolution, there are still political prisoners being held in Azerbaijan and deplores the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities have not found a lasting solution to this problem. The Rapporteur warns that if there is no solution to the problem of the political prisoners by the Assembly’s autumn 2004 part-session, Azerbaijan’s presence within the Council of Europe will have reached a critical stage. ________________________ F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex, tel: +33 3 88 41 20 00, fax: +33 3 88 41 27 02, http://assembly.coe.int, e-mail:
[email protected] Doc. 10026 I. Draft resolution 1. The Assembly recalls its Opinion No 222 (2000), especially paragraph 14.iv.b, in which it asked Azerbaijan to release or retry those prisoners who are considered as “political prisoners” by organisations working for human rights protection, particularly Mr Iskander Gamidov, Mr Alikram Gumbatov and Mr Raqim Gaziyev. 2. In its Resolution 1272 (2002), the Assembly urges the Azerbaijani authorities to resolve the problem of political prisoners, on the grounds that the existence of political prisoners is incompatible with Azerbaijan’s membership of the Council of Europe.