12% prisoners to be pardoned under Amnesty Act

"The amnesty will refer to 9,000 people or 35% of the overall number of prisoners in the country. Of them 1700 people will be released which is 12% of prisoners. Another 1200 prisoners will have their terms reduced. As for the imprisoned women, amnesty will refer to 60% of their total number", said he.

Huseynov called the initiative of Heydar Aliyev's Foundation about the need to adopt the act of amnesty, dated to Novruz, to be significant. "A year ago the foundation made the same initiative. Today's act of amnesty is a continuation of this tradition", noted he.

He said since 1995 Azerbaijan has adopted 7 acts of amnesty and signed 32 pardon decree.

"In 1998 Azerbaijan annulled the capital punishment. Thus, Azerbaijan became the first state in the East to reject capital punishment", said chairman of the parliamentary commission.

"In 1992 Azerbaijan accounted for 390 prisoners per every 100,000 citizens. In 1993 the country's leadership started to take humane actions in this area. In the result of the recent act of amnesty every 100,000 people account for less than 200 prisoners today", noted Huseynov.

He said for this indicator Azerbaijan outstripped other CIS states and became close to the European states.

"This positive tendency will continue. We will tend to bring the number of prisoners per every 100,000 to less than 190", said he.

/Day.Az/