Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova has promised to promote a solution to requirements by inmates of the Gbustan closed prison. The convicts have gone on hunger strike following the demand for the replacement of life imprisonment with a sentence of 15 to 20 years.
Suleymanova said that she visited the long-term prison and вЂ" together with prison authorities and representatives of the Ministry of Justice вЂ" they met with the inmates, who were on strike, and asked them to end the strike, after hearing out the requirements by the convicts.
“They don’t complain of prison conditions, not do they have something being contrary to the treatment by prison authorities or other staff. Their principal requirement is to replace the life imprisonment with a shorter term of sentence,” Suleymanova said.
She added that next week she is about to have corresponding consultations with competent bodies over the settlement of the problem.
According to Suleymanova, there are 89 prison inmates in Azerbaijan, who demand retrial, and only two of them вЂ" originally four inmates went on strike вЂ" are still on strike.
In Azerbaijan, death sentence verdicts by courts have been replaced with life imprisonment, following the abolishment of capital punishment in 1998.