Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
Jan 18 2005

PACE notes violations

by Zulfugar Agayev

BAKU – Andreas Gross, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe’s (PACE) rapporteur on Azerbaijan, said at the meeting of the
high European body’s Monitoring Committee on Wednesday that the
Azerbaijani authorities have failed to check up on the election
violations fixed during the country’s last presidential vote, ANS
reported.

Bakhtiyar Aliyev, an MP and a member of the Azerbaijani delegation at
the PACE, told the local TV Company that the rapporteur mentioned
violations noted by observers in 600 polling stations.

Gross reportedly said that it was mandatory for the Azerbaijani
government to check up on the election irregularities so that no
citizens remain skeptical about the legitimacy of the new President
Ilham Aliyev.

The PACE Monitoring Committee also heard from the other
co-rapporteurs regarding Azerbaijan, such as from Martinez Casan,
Daniel Goulet and Malcolm Bruce.

MP Aliyev said that as the reports were prepared before 19 December
2003, they didn’t consider the recent laws adopted by the Azerbaijani
parliament, ratified conventions and the latest presidential decree
of pardon.

A total of 160 prisoners, including former interior minister Iskender
Hamidov, former head of Interpol’s Baku office Ilgar Safikhanov, and
also former members of the Special Police Force (OPON), were freed
from jail in President Aliyev’s amnesty decree signed on 30 December.

The decree also reduced the sentence terms of four other prisoners.

MP Aliyev noted that the Monitoring Group’s meeting didn’t criticise
the results of Azerbaijan’s 15 October presidential vote and that
Gross stressed Aliyev’s absolute victory in the election.

The rapporteurs also stressed the country’s failure to meet all the
commitments it took before joining the Council of Europe (CE) in
2001, Aliyev said.

However, Murtuz Aleskerov, speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament,
said the country has fulfilled `99 percent’ of all its obligations.
Aleskerov added the other commitments would be fulfilled soon.

Debates on Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia’s honouring of the CE
obligations are planned for the winter session of the Assembly on 26
January.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress