“At the core of national leader Heydar Aliyev’s philosophy of State Administration and Azerbaijan’s development strategy are the rights and freedoms of Azerbaijani citizens. All political activities of the national leader and follower of his political course Mr. Ilham Aliyev served only the interests of our people. Both leaders, with their humanistic and noble steps and decisions to forgive, brought a great image to their positions and personalities, and won the deep love of our people. As we know, the death penalty remained in Azerbaijan until great leader Heydar Aliyev was brought to power by our people for the second time. It was after Heydar Aliyev’s arrival, in June 1993, that a moratorium was imposed on it, and the death sentence on more than 120 people was not carried out. He considered this punishment contrary to human dignity, human rights and regarded it as an inhuman and cruel measure in a democratic society. Therefore, in 1998, on February 10, the death penalty in Azerbaijan was abolished directly at the initiative of the Great Leader. Thus, Azerbaijan became the first country in the Eastern world to eliminate the death penalty.”
Chairman of Azerbaijan Trade Unions Confederation (ATUC), MP Sattar Mohbaliyev said in his statement to mass media.
According to him, our national leader, while the president of the country, also gave joy to thousands of families with pardon decisions: “thus, in 1995-2003, 32 pardon decrees were signed by Heydar Aliyev, 7 amnesty acts were adopted. He wanted to see every citizen of Azerbaijan free, free and happy. Therefore, by forgiving people who committed crimes, he gave them another chance to assert themselves, to become useful members of society. During 2003-2023, the head of State, H. E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, who remained loyal to the activities of the Great Leader in this field, signed 37 pardon orders, as well as 5 amnesty acts. Since 1995, a total of 9,788 convicts have been forgiven by pardon decisions, families have rejoiced and loved ones have reunited. All this is an indicator of humanistic and humane feelings of both great sons of our people. It is worth recalling that while Mehriban Aliyeva was a member of the Milli Majlis, amnesty acts were adopted on her initiative in 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2016. In general, since 1995, 12 amnesty acts have been applied to about 135 thousand people, more than 32 thousand convicts have been released.”
“The head of our state, Mr. Ilham Aliyev, based on the principles of justice signed another amnesty order on May 25. 154 people and their families were happy with the order. First of all, the signing of the order on the eve of Independence Day shows the high value that our President attaches to the history, independence, and statehood of Azerbaijan. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, who is able to forgive and is always an example with his humanitarian policy, released 63 convicts from the unserved part of the sentence, and reduced the unserved part of the sentence of 52 convicts to half. Also, 1 person whose punishment was suspended was freed from punishment, and the unserved part of the punishment of 28 people sentenced to restriction of freedom was forgiven. Also, the unserved part of the sentence of 3 persons sentenced to restriction of liberty was reduced by half. Apart from these, 2 persons sentenced to correctional works were released from the unserved part of the sentence, 4 persons sentenced to fines were released from punishment, and 1 person sentenced to imprisonment and who served the sentence was removed. I hope that the persons benefiting from the amnesty order, including those who have been released, will not repeat the mistake they made before, and will be able to be useful for our state, society and their families. There are many young people among them. Those young people should make the best use of this opportunity. The attention shown by our state to the youth in our country and the conditions created for their comprehensive development are obvious. The young people who have been released should take advantage of this opportunity, build their lives and activities in the right direction, and not deviate from the law,” the deputy of the Milli Majlis emphasized.