President Ilham Aliyev issues Order to pardon group of convicts

Baku, March 16, AZERTAC President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today signed an Order pardoning a group of prisoners. The Order says the decision to pardon the convicts was taken after considering appeals of several convicts, their family members, the Commissioner for Human Rights, human rights organizations to the head of state, as well as the personality of convicts, their health state, family conditions, and their behavior during the conviction. Under the Order, 412 convicts are released from the unserved part of their prison sentence. Moreover, four people were freed from the remainder of the conditional sentence, one person was freed from the remainder of the correctional labor and three people were freed from the penalty in the form of a fine. Under the presidential order, two persons, who were jailed for life, have had their prison terms reduced to 25 and 15 years.