VZCZCXRO0437
PP RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR
RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHKB #0468 1091205
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 191205Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BAKU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2834
INFO RUCNOSC/ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN EUROPE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS BAKU 000468 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KDEM KJUS AJ
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL PARDON DECREE INCLUDES YOUTH ACTIVIST 
Ref: 06 Baku 1022 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. 
1.(U) On March 19, at the start of the weeklong national holiday 
Novruz, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued a pardon decree 
that released 100 prisoners. Responding to numerous appeals of 
prisoners, their families, law enforcement bodies and the Human 
Rights Ombudsman, President Aliyev released 85 convicts from prison, 
commuted sentences of nine prisoners, and also suspended penalty 
fines against four persons. 
¶2. (U) The decree ended the already suspended sentence of one of the 
three leaders of the Yeni Fikir youth group, Said Nuriyev. Nuriyev 
was sentenced to prison in July 2006 in a proceeding that did not 
meet international standards for a fair trial, along with Ruslan 
Bashirli and Ramin Tagiyev. (At the time of sentencing, the court 
suspended Nuriyev's three year sentence because of his congenital 
health problems.) Many human rights activists had appealed for 
Nuriyev's sentence to be cancelled since it would enable him to 
travel overseas without GOAJ permission to obtain further medical 
care. The only other prominent prisoner included in the pardon was 
Keramet Kerimov, a military commander involved in Heydar Aliyev's 
seizure of power in 1993, who had been sentenced to life in prison 
on charges of treason, keeping of weapons and forming a criminal 
gang. The decree also included two citizens of Afghanistan and one 
from Vietnam. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Although all welcomed Nuriyev's pardon, most human rights 
activists believed the presidential decree did not do enough to 
address the broader question of who should be considered political 
prisoners. One local human rights group, the Federation of Human 
Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan, said that this latest 
presidential decree included 12 persons from their list of political 
prisoners but that 65 political prisoners remain on the group's 
list. Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and 
Democracy, concurred with this view. Yunus said she strongly 
believes that the GOAJ will ignore the NGOs' political prisoners' 
lists as long as the international community does not press the GOAJ 
to address them. 
 
¶4. (U) Novella Jafarova and Saida Gojamanly, prominent human rights 
defenders, also expressed dissatisfaction with the latest pardon 
decree. Both expressed regret that national Karabakh war hero Rasim 
Akparov was not included. (Akparov had been sentenced to life 
sentence on treason charges.)   Jafarolgu also said that other 
persons she considers to be political prisoners, such as Popular 
Front Party activist from Nakhichivan Arif Aliyev, Natik Efendiyev 
(jailed on charges of illegal possession of weapons and involvement 
in mass rioting), Mehdi Mehdiyev (jailed on charges of hooliganism/ 
beating of journalists), Mirza Sakit (jailed for illegal possession 
of drugs), Sakhavat Humbatov (jailed on treason/coup d'etat 
charges), and Akif Huseynov (jailed on treason/espionage charges), 
were not included. 
DERSE