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PACE adopts statement on Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev

28 June 2019 15:22 (UTC +04:00)

As a result of the event entitled "Humanitarian issue of two Azerbaijani civilians: Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev", a statement was adopted on the Azerbaijani hostages Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, APA reports citing press-service of PACE.

The statement reads:

"11 July 2019 will mark five years since the Azerbaijani civilians Mr Dilgam Asgarov and Mr Shahbaz Guliyev were taken hostage while visiting the graves of their relatives in the occupied Kalbajar region of Azerbaijan. They represent a community of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis forcibly displaced from their native lands as a result of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

We are deeply concerned that all calls to release them have been rejected so far.

We acknowledge the fact that in 2015 their application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights.

As we were reminded at the event hosted by the delegation of Azerbaijan to the Parliamentary Assembly on 25 June, the humanitarian case of Mr Asgarov and Mr Guliyev deserves a strong reaction from the international community to put an end to their life-threatening desperate situation.

We therefore urge the Assembly, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the Commissioner for Human Rights to seize this matter to ensure their immediate and unconditional release, in order to restore their violated rights.

We also look forward to seeing the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights concerning their case."