The Norwegian Helsinki Committee awards The Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award in 2014 to political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

They exhibit great courage and make huge efforts in promoting dignity, democratic values and human rights in their home country. Azerbaijan is a European country that is developing towards dictatorship, says Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), Bjørn Engesland, in a statement released on Monday.

This award is given to all of the political prisoners. It is a sad fact that they are too numerous to all be mentioned here.

The authorities in oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan by the Caspian Sea have for years brutally silenced critics by accusing them of fictive crimes and then sentencing them to lengthy prison terms, the statement reads.

Among the 98 political prisoners there are 13 journalists and bloggers, 10 human rights defenders and other civil society actors and lawyers, nine youth activists, a key opposition leader and many other opposing voices and religious activists.

The human rights crisis has been ongoing in Azerbaijan for many years, but the authorities have still not faced very strong reactions from the outside world.