Azerbaijani President signs pardon decree

On March 16, Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, signed yet another decree on prisoners’ pardoning ahead of Nowruz national holiday. Overall 423 convicts have been pardoned under the decree. 412 convicts have been released from serving the remaining term of imprisonment. 2 persons have been replaced their life sentence with 25 and 15 years in prison, respectively.

Among pardoned individuals there are 5 persons included in the political prisoners’ lists, drawn up by the human rights activists.

Find more details about the political prisoners’ lists in the JAMnews article here

The relatives of the opposition political immigrants- the brother and the nephew of Ganimat Zakhidov, the editor-in chief of the Azadlyg newspaper, as well as the brother-in-law of the Meydan TV director, Emin Abdullayev (Milli), have been also pardoned. All of them were convicted on drug possession charges.

Execution of the pardon decree has been launched on March 17.