Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 17
By Samir Ali – Trend:
Cengiz Ciftci, a Turkish national, who has been granted a presidential pardon, expressed his gratitude to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva.
Ciftci was accused of drug trafficking and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, seven of which he has already served.
“Nobody visited me during the period of serving the sentence. I haven’t seen my family for seven years,” he told Trend. “I was pardoned because this is my first conviction. I will never do this again.”
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on March 16 to pardon 423 people.
Among those pardoned there are 40 foreign citizens, including 13 Iranian nationals, six – Pakistanis, four nationals of Georgian, Russia and Nigeria per each, three nationals of China and Turkey per each, two citizens of Uzbekistan and one Ukrainian national. There are also two activists among the pardoned people.