Azerbaijan's president pardons 116 to mark religious Holiday

Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliyev signed an order to pardon 116 convicts to mark the Muslim holiday of Gurban Bairam, the state agency Azertaj reported Tuesday.

Among those pardoned are 36 who were serving sentences for crimes "against independence, statehood and territorial integrity of the country," the report said. That included eight participants in a 1994 coup attempt.

The pardon also included 16 people convicted in large-scale disturbances in Sheki, a town in northwestern Azerbaijan, in 2000.