Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.12
Trend:
Azerbaijan has cautioned fellow members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) against using the pretext of human rights to engage in direct interference in the Azerbaijan justice system, PR Newswire website said.
It is reported that Elkhan Suleymanov, a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, issued the warning after a meeting of the PACE Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee in Paris, Dec.10, at which an information note covering Azerbaijan human rights was discussed.
That note, by the Rapporteur on Azerbaijan Pedro Agramunt, was critical of Azerbaijan but it did state that the issue of so-called political prisoners in Azerbaijan should be resolved in a legal context, and that these prisoners should have recourse to the European Court of Human Rights, the website said.
Suleymanov said that despite consensus on this point there remain forces within PACE out to use this issue "in a deliberate and exaggerated way" to politically pressure Azerbaijan, according to the website.
Suleymanov warned PACE against making sweeping demands to release from custody those who are midway through criminal cases being heard by the Azerbaijani courts, said the website.