PACE to draw up new report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan

"After the rerun of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, in late May, me and another co-rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee of Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Andreas Gross will visit Baku related to political prisoners and the students expelled from universities for their political views," PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteur for Azerbaijan Andres Herkel told in his exclusive interview to the correspondent of the Europe bureau of APA at the spring session of PACE.

Mr Herkel said that they will draw up a report regarding these problems in the end. The co-rapporteur said it would be known who are political prisoners in Azerbaijan after that visit.

Saying that one of the objectives of the visit is to meet with imprisoned ex-minister for economic development Farhad Aliyev, Mr Herkel said they would determine whether he is political prisoner after their visit.

"The issue concerning political prisoner has not been completely solved in Azerbaijan. There are different lists of political prisoners in the country," the co-rapporteur underlined.
Herkel also said they have planned their meetings to be held in Baku. However, there is no information with whom they will have talks.

"As usual, we'll meet all sides this time. We'll have talks with those who can make us well informed about the issues we are concerned about," he said.

Herkel also said he and Andreas Gross have no problems with Azerbaijani authorities.
"Simply, Azerbaijani authorities cause problems to themselves by not complying with some commitments," the co-rapporteur underlined.