The Council of Europe has published the report "Prison Population 2022", prepared by the University of Lausanne.
According to the report, as of the end of 2022 in Europe's prisons a total of 981,575 people were serving their sentences. Turkey has the largest number of prisoners - 303.945, followed by 79.092 in the UK, 71. 874 in Poland and 69.964 in France.
Lawyer Khalid Aghaliyev noted, commenting on the report, that in Turkey there are 355 people imprisoned or already convicted to imprisonment per every 100.000 people.
According to this index, Georgia follows Turkey with 237 prisoners per 100.000 people.
In third place is Azerbaijan with the index of 216.8 prisoners per 100.000 people, continued Aghaliyev.
According to him, in Azerbaijan the total number of prisoners is 22 334, of which 21 713 are men and 621 women.
In Azerbaijan prisons there are 436 foreign nationals of men and 11 - women.
Of the total number of prisoners, 12.6% were sentenced for 1 to 3 years, 39.6% for 3 to 5 years, 32.7% for 5 to 10 years, 13.1% for 10 to 20 years and 1.7% for life.
Total number of places in prisons in Azerbaijan is 25,471 and they are 87.7% occupied.
However, as Turan notes, the occupancy figures in the prisons are contrary to reports from relatives of prisoners, who claim that penitentiary institutions are overcrowded, and in particular that there are more convicts than there are beds in the cells.
Azerbaijani authorities do not provide information on the number of prison staff, citing the secrecy of such data, said lawyer Aghaliyev.
In 2020 there were 208 prisoners per 100,000 people in Azerbaijan, and 215 in 2021.
In 2021, the annual cost of imprisonment in Azerbaijan was 64.8 million EUR or 7.97 EUR per prisoner per day. This is the lowest figure among Council of Europe countries after Ukraine.
In Turkey the daily cost per prisoner is 9.81 euros, in Georgia it is 10.55 euros and in Moldova 12.7 euros.
At that, Ireland is the leader in terms of spending on prisoners, where the figure is 1,207 euro per inmate per day. Next comes Norway - 378 euro, Luxembourg - 327 euro, and Liechtenstein - 300 euro.
The European average is 81.41 euros. -03B06-
Unknown assailants attacked AzTV crew in Nanterre, France
Baku/29.06.23/Turan: A film crew of the state television of Azerbaijan - AzTV has been attacked in France, AzTV said in a statement of "Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting" CISC.
The crew of the state television AzTV in France was attacked, the press service of "Azerbaijani Television and Radio Broadcasting" CISC said in a statement.
Journalist Kamil Balakishiyev and cameraman Ogtay Gasymov were attacked the previous day in Nanterre where the crew was preparing a report on the consequences of the riots caused by the murder of a 17-year-old Algerian boy by police.
The journalist and cameraman were slightly injured in the attack and the camera was taken from their hands. Besides, when demanding the return of the camera, the attackers threatened them with weapons.
AzTV described the attack on the Azerbaijani journalists as a "violation of the principles of freedom of expression and independent journalism in general".
AzTV called on the French law enforcement agencies to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the incident, detain and punish those responsible for the attack on the journalists with weapons and take appropriate measures to compensate for the damage caused.
Source: Turan News Agency