Activists release list of 147 political prisoners in Azerbaijan

The working group, consisting of Azerbaijani rights defenders, NGO activists, journalists and lawyers, has published an updated list of the country’s political prisoners. It has the names of 147 persons; the cases of another six are being monitored by the activists.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the previous version of the list of political prisoners compiled by the working group, was published in November 2016 and contained 119 political prisoners with other 25 – under monitoring.

The updated list with 153 names has been released today. Eight persons, currently at large, were excluded from the previous list, said Rasul Jafarov, one of the coordinators of the working group, and the head of the Human Rights Club, explaining that 36 political prisoners have been added to the list.

In particular, the new list includes the journalist Afgan Sadygov, the blogger Mekhman Guseinov, who is also the Director of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), and the theologian Sardar Babaev.

Besides, the list contains a new group of political prisoners – "those, arrested for participation in social protests."

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