Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. K.Zarbaliyeva / After reformatories of Azerbaijan are transferred to the regime of cell detention, the decision of the type of regime the prisoners will undertake will be transferred to the head of the reformatories The deputy Minister of Justice and Chief of Penal Service of Azerbaijan, Nazim Alekberov, informed Trend on 7 May that experts of the Council of Europe offered to make amendments to the Criminal Code of the country. The deputy minister considered it impossible to realize this proposal at present.
"Currently it is impossible to apply in Azerbaijan. Prisoners in foreign countries are detained in cells. The heads of the reformatories themselves define the detention regime because the reformatories function in cell regime and therefore, to apply this regime in those countries does not present problems. The prisoners in severe-regime reformatories spend the whole day in a cell. They are permitted to have a walk for only one hour. In prisons of common regime, prisoners may have a walk and work all the day and they return to their cells only in the evening. We do not have any conditions for cell detention," Alekberov said. The deputy minister said that work is being carried out in reformatories to transfer to the regime of cell detention. The newly constructed buildings will be in cell regime in accordance with European standards. Expanding the authority of the heads of the reformatories is only possible after completion of this process. The kind of detention in Azerbaijan is defined by the courts. And the experts of the Council of Europe offer to transfer these authorities to the heads of the reformatories. In the reformatories of Azerbaijan, the prisoners are detained in the regime of dormitory, but not in a cell.