Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. K.Zarbaliyeva / Three prisoners of Gobustan prison of Azerbaijan, whose death penalty was changed to life imprisonment, appealed to the Azerbaijani Supreme Court.
The lawyer of prisoners, Elman Osmanov, Ali Guliyev and Nadir Maharramov, appealed to the Plenum of the Supreme Court. According to Osmanov, the prisoners demand to change their life imprisonment to 15 years in prison.
Alizadeh Huseyinov, the chief of Gobustan closed prison, has stated that about 50 prisoners appealed to the Supreme Court to reconsider their case. Supreme Court has stated that similar appeals have been submitted to the court from 2005. These appeals have been considered separately. The Court has reported that in compliance with the legislation a collective appeal cannot be submitted to court.
Some 85 prisoners, whose death penalty was changed to life imprisonment, demand decrease of the term by 15 years in prison. The prisoners began hunger strike. After the latest acts, MP Ali Huseyinov met with the prisoners and recommended them to appeal to the Azerbaijani Supreme Court for consideration of cases separately. Ramiz Rzayev, the judge of the Supreme Court, has recommended to prisoners to appeal to the Supreme Court in his statement.
Some 85 prisoners serve their term in Gobustan closed prison, whose death penalty was changed by life imprisonment. After canceling the death penalty the number of prisoners reached 128.
The life imprisoned of Gobustan closed prison held hunger strike. The prisoners consider that after abolishing death penalty the term of their prison must be changed by gravest punishment of the Criminal Code by 15 years of imprisonment.
The resolution of the European Court on human rights due to Alikram Humbatov's lawsuit stated that change of death penalty with life imprisonment correspond to the European convention.