On June 4, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel-General Ramil Usubov, received a delegation that arrived in our country with an official visit, headed by the President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) Mikola Gnatovsky.

Greeting the guests, the Minister stressed that one of the priority tasks set by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, is the protection of human rights and freedoms and noted that the rights and freedoms of detainees or prisoners are fully ensured in accordance with the law and the prevention of ill-treatment and torture against them is under the special control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Minister, who noted that the institution he heads carefully analyzed the report of the Committee's representatives on the results of the monitoring, recalled that the implementation of recommendations aimed at increasing the effectiveness of work to protect human rights was initiated and touched upon other issues reflected in this document. Explaining some of the issues mentioned in the report regarding physical violence against detainees, including adolescents, the Minister noted that during the investigation conducted with alleged victims of torture, only 1 out of 11 facts was confirmed, and one staff member was therefore removed from service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and serious disciplinary measures were applied to 7 employees. The Minister also touched upon the negative assessment given in the report regarding the 90-day period of administrative arrest provided for by law, he noted that in recent years serious legal reforms aimed at humanizing criminal legislation have been carried out in our country. For example, although earlier imprisonment for up to two years was provided for the theft with material damage up to 500 manats, and imprisonment for up to six months was provided for beatings, now these crimes were decriminalized and changed to the category of administrative offenses. As a result, the aforementioned theft causes administrative arrest up to 3 months, and beatings - administrative arrest up to 2 months.

Another disturbing aspect mentioned in the report during the last monitoring is that detainees often return from the detention center to places of temporary detention, which increases the risk of their exposure to ill-treatment or torture. The Minister drew the attention of the guests to the fact that in accordance with Article 8 of the Law "On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of People held in Detention Places" for conducting various investigative actions or participation of a detainee in a trial, detainees are transferred from the detention center to the temporary detention for a period not exceeding 10 days per month, on a reasonable decision of the prosecutor or court exercising procedural control of the pre-trial investigation. In such cases, as well as in case of return to the detention center, a medical examination of the detainees is conducted. All these procedures are carried out only in accordance with the current legislation. It was stressed that this law was developed in close cooperation with relevant international organizations in the field of human rights, as well as with the Council of Europe and was positively commented on by these institutions.

Minister R.Usubov noted that a repeated check will be carried out and the necessary relevant instructions will be given to the main departments concerned to remove existing shortcomings, which include the lack of full compliance of sanitation conditions in some places of temporary detention with modern standards, the shortcomings associated with medical examinations, organization of meetings of detainees with their lawyers and proper informing their families.

He mentioned that there are no obstacles for detainees to meet with their lawyers and families, and noted that for this purpose special premises are provided, a mechanism for medical examinations of detainees, informing their families and other aspects are applied in accordance with the law and all relevant officials bear responsibility for protecting the rights of detainees enshrined in legislation, regardless of their positions. He also stressed that only in the first quarter of this year the Office of the Ombudsman and the International Committee of the Red Cross conducted 54 monitoring in the places of temporary detention of the territorial police. During this period, 115 employees were subjected to disciplinary measures for cases of ill-treatment, unreasonable detention and arrest. 7 of them were discharged from employment, another 7 were dismissed from their posts, and other disciplinary sanctions were imposed on 101 people.

Expressing gratitude for the cordial welcome and detailed information, the President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture Mikola Gnatovsky noted that some of the shortcomings revealed during the monitoring, conducted by the structure he directs, were eliminated and stressed that the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs adheres to a consistent and principled position on any cases of violation of human and civil rights and freedoms. At the same time, he proposed some recommendations regarding the detention of detainees in the city and regional police departments and expressed confidence that all existing shortcomings would be considered in a short time as a positive outcome of this cooperation.

A number of other issues of mutual interest were also discussed at the meeting.