Alikram Hummatov

Alikram Hummatov or Ali Akram Hemmatzadeh (also spelled as Alikram Gummatov, born 1948) is a Talysh military and political activist of Azerbaijan, the president of self-proclaimed Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic in 1993, formerly prisoned in Azerbaijan. He was considered as a political prisoner by international organizations including Amnesty International and Council of Europe. After demands from the Council of Europe, Hummatov was granted retrials, yet according to Human Rights Watch report, the authorities conducted him inside prisons, and with procedural violations.

Hummatov finished Polytechnic Institute of Baku. He participated in different parties, including Popular Front of Azerbaijan. Hummatov, who was "seen by many Azeris as a dangerous separatist", was the leader of the self-declared Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic which existed briefly in the south of Azerbaijan at a time of political instability in 1993.

In 1995 Hummatov was sentenced to death by the Azerbaijani court, later commuted to life imprisonment, on a range of charges including treason. In an open letter to the president Ilham Aliyev, Sidiki Kaba, the president of the International Federation of Human Rights, wrote, that Hummatov and Qaziyez "are being held in Qobustan prison. Their prison system is very strict and sentences them to isolation. In fact, under the pretext of protecting their physical integrity, these two prisoners have been locked up alone, in closed cells at night, which prevents them from receiving medical assistance throughout the night in the case a problem should arise." In prison Hummatov fell ill with tuberculosis, lost almost all the tooths. He was among those identified in 2001 by the Council of Europe, as political prisoners who should either be released or retried. In 2004 Hummatov has been pardoned by president Aliev, was deprived by the Azerbaijani citizenship and sent to the Netherlands where his family lives.

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