Most jailed teenagers committed crimes more than once, reportedly said MP Elmira Akhundova, members of Presidents Pardon Commission, speaking at the round table held April 27 on the topic of application of alternative measures on pardoning teenage offenders.
Akhundova.said there are in total 55 sentenced teenagers in Azerbaijan. Criminal code stipulates suspended sentence for children committing a crime.
MP said from 55 offenders 15 are jailed for sexual violence, 4 for sale of drugs, 7 for robbery, 3 for pillage and others for different crimes. В"It would be excellent if NGOs prepared and implemented the programs on improvement of their social life after the dischargeВ" - Akhundova said.
Radoslv Rzehak, head of UNICEF Child program, said sentences issued on children in Azerbaijan are too severe. He said also the juvenile justice program currently implemented in Azerbaijan has already been passed in several countries and gave good results.
At the session were also participating chiefs of State Committee for problems of family, women and children, as well as NGO Alliance for Children Rights, which performed with the information on their projects.
Upon the completion of the event, the participants addressed president Ilham Aliyev with a request to take into consideration the possible softening the penalty for teenagers.