Details added (the first version was posted at 11:52)
Azerbaijan, Baku, May 27 / Trend T.Hajiyev /
Head of the Presidential Administration's Law Enforcement Bodies Work Department Fuad Alasgarov believes the lack of a generally accepted definition of the "political prisoner" term leads to its different interpretations.
"The problem is that the "political prisoner" term has no universally accepted definition, and this leads to different interpretations of the term," Alasgarov said at the international conference "Necessity of adopting a common definition of the "political prisoner" term" in Baku.
He stressed the importance of the conference attended by representatives of the European Parliament, Euronest, several international organizations and the Azerbaijani government.
He said the theme of the conference is quite urgent and it is not confined only to Europe.
"The lack of definition of the "political prisoner" term leads to its various interpretations, and the European organizations can play an important role in solving this problem. Standards accepted in the European institute are applied not only in Europe," Alasgarov said.
Alasgarov said it is necessary to implement a unified approach to issues that are of interest to all, since it is closely related to human rights.
"This approach is closely related with the protection of human rights," Alasgarov said. "Therefore, the "political prisoner" term must be defined in this context."
He said the key objective of the event is to achieve formulation of a common definition "political prisoner", which is a sensitive issue for Azerbaijan and other countries, in the European countries.
"The conference is aimed to prepare a document in the form of a resolution that will be sent to the European Parliament and PACE," he told journalists. "We will propose to apply these criteria in all states without exception. We should be exempt from double standards. Universal criteria should be applied in all European countries."