Co-rapporteurs for Azerbaijan of the Parliament Assembly of the
Council of Europe will visit pay a four-day visit to Baku on January
31, one of the co-rapporteurs Joseph Debono Grech told Trend.
They will monitor the situation after the parliament elections in
November last year, rate progress in releasing political prisoners.
The Monitoring Committee is ensuring fulfilment of the responsibility
the Council of Europe took up in 2001. The co-rapporteurs for
Azerbaijan are deputies from Malta and Spain, Joseph Grech and Pedro
Agramunt.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on pardoning 89
prisoners, three were sentenced to custodial restraint, six - fined.
Some of them are in the list of political prisoners of the local
non-governmental organizations for the human rights.
The president pardoned 71 prisoners, 15 - to custodial restraint, 5 -
fined in 2010.
The co-rapporteurs will meet the president, ministers of interior and
foreign affairs and an ombudsman. There will be talks with all
political parties, including opposition, as well, Grech said.
A conference will conclude the last day of the visit.
