On 6 April, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to pardon 176 people over the age of 65 as a step to combat the spread of the coronavirus in the country, reported Turan.
Among them were two former Ministry of National Security employees, General Akif Chovdarov, who was arrested in 2015 and sentenced to 12 years in prison, including on charges of criminal offenses and General Subahir Gurbanov, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Within the pardoned were also two persons who were regarded as political prisoners in the country. One of them is Faramiz Abbasov, one of the leaders of the Islamic party and who was sentenced in 2011 to 11 years in prison. The other was Binyadov Eldar who was convicted of Nardaran clashes in 2015.
On 27 March, the Azerbaijani government released 200 prisoners on an early leave in order to combat the spread of the virus and announced that it will continue the trend (Caucasus Watch reported).
The deficits in the areas of democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan are perceived as one of the most difficult dialogue topics between European organizations and Azerbaijan. The latest criticism was released on 30 January when the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution which condemned the arbitrary arrests of political figures in the country. Aliyev responded to the resolution stating that the western European states were imposing double standards on Azerbaijan (Caucasus Watch reported).
