PROSECUTOR GENERAL MEETS WITH PACE DELEGATION
They discussed a wide range of issues concerning the forthcoming partial re-run of the elections to the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan.
The Prosecutor General described the all-round development of democracy and civil society, creation of solid foundation for more reliable protection of human rights and freedoms and Azerbaijan’s integration into the legal, cultural, economic and social system of Europe as a strategic goal of the country.
He noted that the executive orders, instructions and recommendations by President of the Republic Ilham Aliyev play an important role in formation of traditions of national parliamentarism, and have led to a number of positive qualitative changes.
Mr. Garalov especially underlined activities of the Ad-Hoc Committee’s pre-election observation mission in this direction. He pointed out as well that relevant state bodies had created every condition for the elections to the Milli Majlis to be transparent, free, democratic and fair.
The Prosecutor General informed the visitors on the work done by his office to tackle election-related problems saying 18 working groups consisting of 59 public prosecutors had been seconded to provinces to investigate, together with ,members of the Central Election Commission, the criminal cases on violation of the Election legislation. He advised that investigation of 351 complaints submitted in this connection to the Office of Prosecutor General resulted in launching 18 criminal cases, of which 13 had been forwarded to court, and sentences on 11 of them had already been passed. Mr. Garalov added that all of the complainants had been provided with comprehensive responses explaining their rights, and that the public is regularly informed on the measures taken to handle the complaints.
He pointed out that prosecutors are taking necessary actions to guarantee citizens’ suffrage in the upcoming re-election.
Head of the PACE mission Leo Platvoet voiced his satisfaction with the meetings he had held in Azerbaijan, and expressed confidence that the re-election will take into account the COE recommendations and be conducted in democratic atmosphere.