Azerbaijan President orders pardoning several prisons (UPDATE)

On March 17, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed an order to pardon a number of prisons, AzerTAj state news agency reported.

Having considered the pardon appeals by a number of convicted persons, their families, taking into account the personality, healthy, marital status, behavior of prisoners during imprisonment period, based on the principles of humanity, guided by paragraph 22 of article 109 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has decided to free 62 prisons from the remaining period of imprisonment. Among them there is editor-in-chief of the Azadlyg newspaper Ganimat Zahid.
Also Fatullayeva Nazaket, imprisoned in 2006, is freed.

The order pardoned seven people sentenced to imprisonment, exempted Iftikhar Mammadov, who was sentenced in 2008 to fines and penalties, from imprisonment, replaced the punishment of Ismayilov Tabriz, sentenced to death in 1997 and commuted to life imprisonment, with 20 years imprisonment.

The order takes effect from the day of signing.