President Aliyev sometimes releases those whose prison term is coming to an end anyway - those people were the majority on the list of those pardoned by the most recent decree, Rasul Jafarov says.

"This kind of a pardon looks more like a cheap political move than a humanitarian act. Pardon in Azerbaijan is actually reminiscent of a part of the punitive mechanism. Azerbaijan's legislation does not require a prisoner to personally write a petition to the president. The government makes them do so. In this way, the government seeks to portray them for society as criminals who have conceded their mistakes and repented them," the rights activist says.

Political prisoners are sometimes released in return for loyalty, meaning that they have to promise that they will never resume their political or public activities after they are released from prison. They are sometimes required to reinforce these promises with some political gesture - there have been several cases when people released from prison have received insistent recommendations that they visit the grave of Heydar Aliyev, the former president of Azerbaijan (and father of the current president) and be sure to put flowers on it.

Ilkin Rustamzadeh's loved ones and colleagues say that pressure is constantly exerted on him - the prison administration demands that he submit a pardon request. In addition, requirements are imposed on him that are stricter than those imposed on other prisoners. This is no surprise, however, because the treatment political prisoners get is always much worse than treatment given to felons.

"Others can pay a bribe and have the conditions they are held in improved to a certain extent. But in our barracks there was no way you could move your bed around the cell," former political prisoner Tofig Yagublu recalls. He adds that in the three years he spent in prison he never could buy a newspaper or send a letter to his family.

Ilkin's mother Atlas Huseynova's biggest fear is that because of pressure and torture her son will not be able to leave prison "alive and healthy" after spending there the eight years he was sentenced to. However, the parents' efforts to make their son change his mind have been unsuccessful.

"Every time we tell Ilkin that he should write a pardon request, he responds: did I commit any crime?" says Bakir Khalilov, the activist's father.