The anti-Azerbaijani forces have recently and actively re-launched a wide-scale campaign with claims regarding political prisoners against our country within international organizations, as well as PACE.

It should be noted that a number of national NGOs based in Azerbaijan established relations with these anti-Azerbaijani forces and are financed from foreign sources. These national NGOs prepare the lists of different so-called political prisoners with the order of foreign centers, which finance them, and actively participate in the campaign with claims of many political prisoners in Azerbaijan together with their guardian anti-Azerbaijani forces within the international organizations.

In this context, I would like to stress that there were no the criteria for political prisoners in PACE for long years. As a consequence of continuous insistence by namely Azerbaijani side, PACE acknowledged the absence of the criteria for political prisoners, and finally, the report on the definition of political prisoners was discussed and put to vote in 2012.The voting ended in 89/89, and the report was considered as adopted not on the basis of the majority of PACE members, but in accordance with Rules of Procedure. This result showed a serious split in PACE. Thus, the credibility of those criteria is doubtful.