Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 1 / Trend M. Aliyev /
Azerbaijani Parliamentary Vice Speaker Ziyafat Asgarov considers PACE Rapporteur for PPPolitical Prisoners, German MP Christopher Strasser's statement as biased.
"Europe has not defined the criteria in Europe according to which a person is recognized as a political prisoner. I would like the international organizations to justify these criteria," he said at a meeting of the spring session of the Parliament. He added that all the prisoners whom international organizations call "political prisoners" were arrested for specific crimes.
Strasser criticized Azerbaijan during the winter session of the organization.
Samad Seyidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, also considers the statement as unfounded.
"Azerbaijan has always paid special attention to human rights. We want the organization examining the situation in Azerbaijan not to shut eyes to the existence of political prisoners in other countries," he said.
However, only Azerbaijan was mentioned among 47 countries despite the fact that MPs and journalists are detained in the prisons of the neighboring country. It is biased and wrong, he added.
Strasser planned to visit Azerbaijan to prepare a report on political prisoners, but later he said that the Azerbaijani embassy in Germany allegedly will not give him a visa.