The main purpose of the visit was to examine the situation at Gobustan Prison, which holds all of the country’s life-sentenced prisoners as well as other long-term prisoners. The CPT’s delegation also visited Strict regime penitentiary establishment No. 15 in Baku. In addition, the visit was an opportunity to take stock of recent developments in the Azerbaijani prison system.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

• Marc NEVE, 2nd Vice-President of the CPT (Head of delegation) (Belgian)
• Jean-Pierre RESTELLINI (Swiss).

They were assisted by Petya NESTOROVA (Head of Unit) of the CPT’s Secretariat and André VALLOTTON, former Director of the Prison Service of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland (expert).

In the course of the visit, the delegation had meetings with Fikrat MAMMADOV, Minister of Justice, Zakir GARALOV, Prosecutor General, Elmira SULEYMANOVA, Ombudsperson, and Şakir MUSAEV, Director of the Forensic Medicine Department, Ministry of Health. It also held discussions with senior officials of the Ministry of Justice.