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Council of Europeâ€™s AGO Groupâ€™s visit to Azerbaijan ended

04 April 2008 17:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ulviyya Aliyeva-APA. AGO Group of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Council of Europe held a press-conference on Friday on the outcomes of its visit to Azerbaijan. APA reports, head of the Group Pierre Sjorgen said they had met with the government officials, political party leaders, NGOs and media representatives in Azerbaijan. Socio-political situation in the country, freedoms of speech and press, as well as Human Rights have been discussed at the meetings. â€œAzerbaijan will hold presidential elections this year. We are looking forward that the bill on the â€œFreedom of Assemblyâ€ will be passed until the electionsâ€. Pierre Sjorgen said they had met with the jailed journalists Eynulla Fatullayev, Ganimat Zahid and Sakit Zahidov and added that situation of press concerned them. The head of Group welcomed releasing of 5 of 8 journalists by the Decree of Pardon last December. Pierre Sjorgen said serious measures were carried out in Azerbaijan toward the fulfilling of obligations and reforms were implemented, but there were definite problems despite that.