Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the pardon of 431 inmates on March 16 before the Spring Festival "Novruz". Among the freedmen are 51 people, whose convictions were politically motivated in the opinion of local human rights activists. These include numerous political activists from the opposition as well as representatives of the civil society. Previously, in March, the well-known blogger Mehman Huseynov and the head of the youth organization of the opposition party "Musavat" Abulfas Sadigbeyli were released.

Local human rights activists launched a social media campaign in early March to release all political prisoners under the slogan "#freethemall". Among other things, they consider the recent extensive pardon as a success of this campaign, but at the same time they demand the release of other detained persons whose conviction they consider politically motivated. Many well-known civil society activists welcomed the recent decree of the President and described it as an important step towards the democratic development of Azerbaijan. The government-critical journalist Khadija Ismayilova pointed out that this government decision was not a withdrawal, but a step forward. Also, the editor of the Berlin-based government-critical news site "Meydan TV", Emin Milli, expressly welcomed the presidential pardon.

A statement by the EU External Action Service expresses satisfaction with the Azerbaijani government's recent "long-awaited" move. The EU will continue to cooperate with Azerbaijan for the purpose of intensifying cooperation, in particular in the field of human rights. Human rights are an important element of EU-Azerbaijan relations, the statement said.