Baku Today, Azerbaijan
May 26 2005

Azerbaijan gets poor human rights rating

27/05/2005 02:17

The Amnesty International has issued its final 2004 report on the
situation with human rights in world countries where it said: “the
trials of 40 people held in Azerbaijan after October 2003 fell short
of international standards and courts ‘turned a blind eye’ to the
facts that prisoners were forced to give testimonies under torture.”

“In April, courts issued verdicts on about 100 opposition members
based on the testimonies forced by torture and 33 people were
sentenced from 3 to 6 years in jail,” the report says, Assa Irada
reported today.

The Amnesty International indicated that about a thousand people,
including those considered as ‘political prisoners’ by the Council of
Europe, were released on President Ilham Aliyev’s decrees issued in
March, May and
September 2004. Among those pardoned were former prime minister Surat
Huseynov, who was charged with high treason, and Alakbar Hummatov
charged with a state coup attempt.

Touching on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh,
the report says that the issue on the status of Karabakh, which has
not been recognized by the international community, remains unsettled.