Situation in Azerbaijani penitentiary establishments

(an extract from the report of the Azerbaijanian Centre Of Human Rights)

Eldar Zeynalov,

Director of the Human Rights Protection Centre of Azerbaijan

Elmira Alekperova,

Co-ordinator of the project

In accordance with testimonies of national and international organisations, as well as the administration of the penitentiary system of Azerbaijan, the conditions of the upkeep of prisoners in Azerbaijan are far from the world standards. Usually it is explained by the difference between the world and Soviet penitentiary systems, on the one hand, and the economic crisis resulting in the lack of finances for reforming the prison system, on the other hand.

The official figures of the total number of the incarcerated in Azerbaijan have never been disclosed, being the secret of the agency. However, the total number can be computed in the indirect way. Thus, it was reported that in June 1997 there were 240 incarcerated women and 160 incarcerated minors, which made 1.2% and 0.6% of the total number, respectively. By solving the proportion we shall obtain 20 — 26 thousand of the incarcerated. The variation is due, perhaps, to the official statistics which did not account for the women staying in colonies-settlements. During the first half of 1997 the government gave out 500 millions manat (125,000 USD) for the upkeep of the incarcerated, which makes about one dollar per month per capita.

According to the official data, there were attempts of state coups because of which about 900 people were arrested. About 750 of them were registered by the Human Rights Protection Centre of Azerbaijan. By the data of this Centre, the average political prisoner has the term about ten years of the strict regime, and usually they have no chances to be amnestied. Yet, by now about 50 people who were convicted as «political» cases and as «non-political» cases (such as illegal storage of firearms, hooliganism, complicity before the crime, etc.) have already been released. One of the prisons, Bailovskaya, is notorious by many suspicious deaths of a number of political prisoners. For instance, we may mention the deaths of the former commander of the Agdam battalion of self-defence Yagub Rzaev (who died on 16 July 1993), a bodyguard of the former Minister of Defence Natig Gurbanov (15 May 1994), an activist of the popular front Novruz Novruzov (6 February 1995), the opponent of the President Seyfal Babayev (19 November 1995), the vice-chairman of the Social-democratic party Aypar Aliev (25 November 1995). Not a single death in this list was duly investigated with making the results public, although Amnesty International demanded it in the connection with Aypar Aliev’s death.

Preliminary prisons experience great hardships, since they are overcrowded, and their inmates are underfed. Human rights protection activists quote some occasions when the medical service was inadequate.

After the protests of the local opposition and international human rights protection organisations a joint commission was formed by the Republican Prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Interior. This commission carried out a complex inspection of a number of prisons in December 1996. In the course of this inspection the commission confirmed many facts listed in the complaints. Mainly these were bad sanitary conditions and diseases of some convicts. Dampness and lack of air in cells sometimes led to tuberculosis. Having confirmed occasional deaths of convicts due to bad sanitary conditions, N.Mamedov, the department head of the Directorate of Public Security of the MI, pointed out the decrease of deaths during recent years.

What concerns violent actions of the personnel in preliminary prisons, the prosecutor’s office started criminal cases against eight members of the personnel in 1996.

In 1997 the fifth building of the Bailovskaya prison was visited several times by delegations from the Council of Europe, who were interested in the conditions of upkeep of the prisoners condemned to death. The human rights protection organisations do not know of similar inspections of preliminary prisons by either the Ministry of National Security or the Special Department at President. Nobody ever inspected the preliminary prison of the Chief Directorate of police of the city of Baku. This prison is today the most closed one for mass media and human rights protection organisations.

The penitentiary system of Azerbaijan includes the following establishments of the «closed type»: 6 correcting labour colonies of common regime, 3 colonies of strengthened regime, 3 colonies of strict regime, colony of special regime, reforming labour colony,  prison and one specialised hospital. The penitentiary system also contains establishments of the so-called «open type», i.e. correcting labour colonies settlements for people, who committed crimes by accident (2 colonies), and for people transferred from colonies of the closed type (6 colonies), as well as the special commandant's office for the conditionally convicted (10) and for conditionally released before their term (11).

KGHR. Prison Reforms: Attempts and Achievements. 1999, №10 (46),  pp.72-74