Azerbaijan, Baku, 22 February / Trend corr. K.Zarbaliyeva / There are plans to make changes to the legislation to improve the conditions of prisoners serving life, Faik Gurbanov, chief of department at the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry, reported to Trend .
Tomas Hammarberg, Commissar of Council of Europe on Human rights, proclaimed the report on the state of human rights in Azerbaijan on 20 February. This document shows anxiety with the current conditions for long-term prisoners, in particularly those serving life imprisonment. The Commissar made proposals or prisoners not to be isolated.
Gurbanov stated that the condition of those prisoners service life would be improved once the new Bill has been passed.
Mehman Sadikhov, the head of the Centre of Penalty Service on Public Relations, said that the proposals directed to improve the conditions of prisoners serving life, were submitted to the relevant department and are currently being considered. The proposed changes into the legislation are to improve the conditions of prisoners serving life, for them to meet with their families, to be permitted telephone calls, watch television programs and have the right to receive an education.
An official representative from the Penalty Service reported that the issue regarding the provision of education rights for the prisoners depended upon the Education Ministry. "The Penalty Service must be in agreement with the education Ministry in order to provide prisoners such a right," Sadigov said.
Chingiz Hanizadeh, a member of the Public Committee at Justice Ministry and human right activist, said the problems linked with holding the prisonerswould improve once the new building had been constructed. Hanizadeh believes that the changes will be injected into the legislation before the new building has been put into commission. The key problem connected with those serving life sentences was to have their sentence shortened to 15 years imprisonment. This issue is being considered by the international organizations on human rights.
Nazim Alakparov, the deputy Justice Minister and chief of Penalty Service stated to journalists that the issue to eliminate the censorship of letters for the prisoners serving life sentences is among the proposed changes.
Working conditions and open-air walks will be provided for prisoners in the new building which will be constructed by Turkey, Finland and Estonia standards.
There are 200 prisoners serving life sentences in Azerbaijan. They are kept in the Gobustan prison and permitted a one-hour walk daily.
The new building will be constructed in the Umbaku settlement near Baku, in a different area to the current prison in the Gobustan state reserve.