The Union "For Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan" (UFPPA) has published an updated list of political prisoners, which contains 182 names. The list was compiled by the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy Leyla Yunus and the head of the Monitoring Center for Political Prisoners Elshan Hasanov.
Since the previous list, published in February, the number of political prisoners has almost doubled. So 89 new names appeared on the list and they are all believers, Hasanov said. Those arrested are religious activists, members of the "Muslim Unity" movement and theologians.
Their arrests were accompanied by a propaganda campaign in the pro-government media that they were "members of the Iranian spy network". At that, the vast majority are charged under Article 234.4.3 (large-scale drug trafficking) size," Hasanov said. According to him, the arrests are made against the background of diplomatic tensions in relations with Iran.
