18/08/2009 Monitoring
Strasbourg, 18.08.2009 – Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD) and Evguenia Jivkova (Bulgaria, SOC), the co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Azerbaijan by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made the following statement today:
“We are saddened to learn of the death in prison of Novruzali Mammadov, a prominent member of the Talysh ethnic community who was editor-in-chief of the Talysh Sedo newspaper and a member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.
He was sentenced to ten years in prison in February 2007 for high treason and for stirring up national, racial or religious hostility, but is considered a political prisoner by the Federation of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan. PACE had strong doubts about the fairness of his trial, which was not public, and had made numerous calls for his release, including on humanitarian grounds, given his age and state of health. These fell on deaf ears.
We also deplore the fact that, at the time of his arrest, his linguistic manuscripts were destroyed by law enforcement bodies and that this immense work for the benefit of Talysh cultural heritage is now lost forever.”