Baku, May 18, AZERTAC

Spokesman of Azerbaijan`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hikmat Hajiyev commented on the biased decision of PACE to freeze the mandate of the head of the Azerbaijani delegation Samad Seyidov. He said that the Council of Europe, its executive body - the Committee of Ministers - as well as the Parliamentary Assembly, representing its parliamentary branch, regularly demonstrate a double and unfair attitude towards Azerbaijan and its representatives.

“Despite the fact that the Council of Europe poses as a defender of justice and human rights, it does not take any steps in the context of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, and takes a disdainful stance in ensuring justice and protecting the rights of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons and refugees whose fundamental rights have been violated en masse,” he said in an interview with AZERTAC.

Following the hearings in Paris on May 15, the PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure decided that sanctions should apply to four PACE members - Pedro Agramunt (Spain) for a period of 10 years, Cezar Florin Preda (Romania), Samad Seyidov (Azerbaijan) and Jordi Xuclà (Spain) for a period of two years.

All of them, while remaining members of the Assembly with the right to speak, will be banned during these periods from acting as rapporteurs or election observers, and cannot be chairs or vice-chairs of any committees or sub-committees, or stand for election as president of the Assembly.

They will be unable to represent the Assembly or its committees at any third-party events.