Another political prisoner has been released in Azerbaijan

Faik Amirli, the Financial Director of the Azadliq opposition newspaper, has had his remaining term of imprisonment replaced with a conditional sentence, as per the Baku Appeals Court ruling. Amirli was released directly from the courtroom.

Amirli was sentenced to three years and three months in prison on 24 July this year. He was declared a political prisoner by all of the human rights organizations in Azerbaijan and was included in the corresponding lists. Reporters Without Borders’ (Reporters Sans Frontières/RSF), an international non-profit organization that advocated for the freedom of the press, condemned his arrest and urged the Azerbaijani authorities to drop the so-called ‘absurd charges’ against Amirli.

However, up until now all petitions to mitigate Amirli’s prison sentence, which were made by his defence lawyer, has been turned down by the Azerbaijani authorities, despite the obvious health problems that he had been facing.

Amirli is not the only political prisoner who has been released this week. Mehman Aliyev, Director of the Turan news agency, as well as 14 religious activists who had been sentenced for their involvement in the Nardaran case in 2015, were released before Amirli.

Experts offer two main reasons for the new ‘thaw’ in Azerbaijan. First of all, the authorities reaction was a result of journalistic investigations made into ‘questionable’ spending, Azerbaijani authorities buying western officials’ loyalty, and money laundering – the so-called ‘laundromat’.

Secondly, it was intented to boost the ‘rating’ of a new oil contract that was concluded the night before.