Human rights activist: 'Release of well-known convicts also expected under the amnesty'

Baku. 18 May. REPORT.AZ/ 'We appreciate these initiatives. In case of adoption of the act of amnesty, many convicts will be released and join their families'

Report was told by a member of a joint working group on human rights Novella Jafaroghlu while commenting the appeal of First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Milli Majlis (Azerbaijani Parliament) MP Mehriban Aliyeva to the parliament regarding adoption of a new act of amnesty on 28 May - the Republic Day.

The human rights activist said that the Working Group has been active for release of prisoners: 'We try to facilitate release of convicts. That is, we proposed to release the convicts, which sentence remains 3-4 or 1 year and mitigate their sentences. For example, another proposal was to mitigate punishments of those sentenced to 5-6 years. The Working Group always puts forward such offers'.

N.Jafaroghlu said that under this amnesty, also release of the persons, recognized as a 'political prisoner' by a number of international organizations, is expected: 'I mean the people that are on the list of the Working Group. Whose article will correspond, they will be released. In addition to political prisoners, we have applications of thousands of other prisoners. We have been sent 740 applications and significant part of them have already been submitted. I believe that most of the convicts, which names presented, will be released'.