Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Colonel General Ramil Usubov received the delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)  headed by its President Mykola Gnatovsky which arrived on an official visit to our country.
Having welcomed the guest, the Minister emphasized that one of the most priority duties set by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is protection of human rights and freedoms, and noted that rights and freedoms of detained or arrested persons are fully secured in accordance with the law and prevention of harsh treatment and torture against them is under special control of the MIA leadership.

The Minister noted that the establishment headed by him has carefully reviewed the report of the Committee representatives on the monitoring results, mentioned that the implementation of the recommendations aimed at improvement of the effectiveness of the efforts for human rights protection was initiated and touched upon other issues reflected in this document. Clarifying certain issues specified in the report regarding physical abuse against detainees including minors, the Minister noted that during the investigation conducted with alleged victims of tortures only 1 of 11 facts proved to be true. One officer was removed from the internal affairs authorities and severe disciplinary sanctions were applied to 7 officers on this matter.
The Minister also touched upon the negative assessment given in the report for the 90-days period of administrative arrest provided for by the legislation. He noted that over recent years significant legal reforms were carried out in our country to humanize the criminal legislation.
For example, while previously a theft with material damage up to 500 manats was sanctioned with up to 2-year imprisonment, and beating crime was sanctioned with up to 6-month imprisonment, now these offences were decriminalized and moved to the category of administrative offences. As a result, the abovementioned thefts are sanctioned with up to 3-month administrative arrest and beating is sanctioned with up-to 2-month administrative arrest.

Another worrying aspect mentioned in the report during the last monitoring is that detainees are often returned to the temporary detention facilities from the pretrial detention centre that increases the risk of their exposure to mistreatment or torture. The Minister brought to the guests’ attention that in accordance with Article 8 of the Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of Detainees in places of detention, to provide various investigative activities or participation of a detainee in judicial proceedings detainees are transferred from the pretrial detention centre to the temporary detention facilities for a period not exceeding 10 days per month under the reasonable decision of the prosecutor executing the procedural control of pre-trial investigation or the court. In such cases as well as in case of return to the pretrial detention centre medical examination of detainees is conducted. All these procedures are conducted only according to the current legislation. It was emphasized that this law was elaborated in close cooperation with relevant international organizations in the sphere of human rights as well as with the Council of Europe and was commented favorably by these institutions.
Minister R.Usubov noted that reinspection will be carried out and necessary instructions will be given to relevant main departments to address existing shortcomings which include lack of full conformity of sanitation conditions in some TDFs with modern standards, shortcomings connected with medical examinations, organization of meetings of detainees with their lawyers and properly informing their family.

He mentioned that there are no obstacles for detainees to meet their lawyers and families and noted that there are special rooms provided for this purpose, the mechanism of medical examinations of detainees, informing their families and other aspects is applied in accordance with the legislation, and all relevant officers are responsible for protection of rights of detainees fixed in the legislation regardless of their positions.

He also emphasized that in the first quarter of this year alone the Ombudsman Apparatus and the International Red Cross Committee made 54 monitoring visits to temporary detention facilities of the territorial police departments. 115 officers were subjected to disciplinary measures for harsh treatment, arbitrary detention and arrest. Seven of them were removed from internal affairs authorities, another 7 were dismissed from their posts, other disciplinary sanctions were applied to 101 persons.

Having expressed gratitude for hearty reception and detailed information, President of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)  Mykola Gnatovskynoted that a part of shortcomings revealed during the monitoring of CPT were addressed, and emphasized that the leadership of MIA has taken a consistent and principled position on any cases of violation of human and civil rights and freedoms. At the same time, he offered some recommendation on maintaining detainees in city and regional police departments and expressed his confidence that all existing shortcomings will be addressed within a short time as a positive result of this cooperation.
The parties also discussed a number of other matters of interest during the meeting.