27/05/2011 Monitoring
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs for Azerbaijan, Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) and Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC), welcomed the release of Eynulla Fatullayev, a journalist and newspaper editor of the defunct newspaper Realny Azerbaijan who was pardoned by President Ilham Alyev along with some 90 convicts ahead of the forthcoming 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
“The release of Mr Fatullayev is a positive step in the right direction following our repeated calls on the Azerbaijani authorities including during our most recent visit in February this year”, the co-rapporteurs stated. “We hope that it will be followed by further progress in the respect for human rights in particular with regard to recent concerns relating i.a. to the sentencing of some youth activists including Mr Jabbar Savalan. We call on Azerbaijan to provide for a fair and swift revision of the verdicts in these cases”, they added.
“Mr Fatullayev’s pardon can be seen as a concrete expression of the authorities’ declared will to advance on the path of democratization of the country and creates a window of opportunity for further concrete progress as well as for the establishment of a constructive dialogue with the opposition. We call on both sides to open such a dialogue” – said the co-rapporteurs entrusted with the monitoring of the commitments Azerbaijan entered into when joining the Council of Europe.
Mr Fatullayev was arrested in 2007, and sentenced to 8,5 years in prison on charges including tax evasion and instigation of terror. In 2010, the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that his right to a fair trial and freedom of expression had been violated and that he should be released immediately. The Supreme Court in Azerbaijan then overturned Mr Fatullayev’s conviction but left in place a separate two and a half year sentence handed down in 2009 for possession of illegal drugs while in prison.
The co-rapporteurs intend to visit Azerbaijan in Autumn before presenting a report on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan at the beginning of next year.