Number of jailed women down 33 percent in Azerbaijan
By Nigar Orujova
The number of imprisoned women has decreased by 33 percent in Azerbaijan this year, a senior law enforcement official said Thursday.
"Some 450 female prisoners were serving sentences in Azerbaijan in 2011, whereas this year their number is 300," deputy head of the Justice Ministry's Penitentiary Service, Huseyn Alikhanov, said while visiting Women's Prison No. 4.
He noted that fraud, drug dealing and trafficking, and murders are the most frequent causes of women's imprisonment.
Moreover, the number of juveniles serving sentences has halved in comparison with last year and made up 26 this year, Alikhanov said.
Alikhanov noted that international and local rights groups and the ombudsman highly appreciate the reforms aimed at improving prisoners' conditions of detention, which have been implemented in the country.
"The conditions of detention are improving and each of them has the right to call his relatives," he said.