Updated list of Azerbaijani political prisoners has 94 persons

The working group, consisting of rights defenders, NGO activists, journalists and lawyers of Azerbaijan, has released an updated list of the country's political prisoners. It has 139 persons; 94 of them have been recognized as political prisoners; the cases of other 45 are being monitored. According to activists, they may also be recognized as political prisoners.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the previous version of the list was published in December 2015.

Rasul Jafarov, one of the coordinators of the working group and the head of the Human Rights Club, said that the group was based its decisions on the criteria of the "political prisoner" as set forth in Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) No. 1900 of October 3, 2012.

The report qualifies political prisoners into eight groups: "Journalists/Bloggers"; "Writers/Poets"; "Rights Defenders"; "Young Activists"; "Politicians and Party Activists"; "Religious Activists"; "Sentenced to Life Imprisonment"; and "Others".

The list of potential political prisoners includes the theologian Elshan Mustafaoglu; Mukhameddali Akhundzade (a son of Rufulla Akhundzade, an activist of the Azerbaijani Islamic Party, recognized as political prisoner); as well as 43 persons arrested under the "Nardaran case."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.