AZERBAIJAN. RIGHTS ACTIVIST SAYS "INFORMAL MORATORIUM" ON DEATH PENALTY

it was reported that a death row inmate in Azerbaijan had appealed to the presidential administration to be executed by shooting. He had been sentenced to death before the abolition of capital punishment but his sentence had not been de jure commuted to life imprisonment.
The Azerbaijan Human Rights Centre (AHRC) reported that the situation came into being after reports were made on the possible pardoning of 50 former death row inmates who had spent 10 years or longer in prison. Many of them had not had their sentences commuted since the abolition of the death penalty on 21 February 1998 and still remained de jure on death row. AHRC director Eldar Zeynalov believed that the current situation in the country could be compared with an informal moratorium with prisoners sentenced to death but no executions carried out. Inmates sentenced to death had appealed for pardon but their request had neither been considered nor rejected, although according to procedures, the refusal to pardon them would have led to their executions within several days, Zeynalov said.