The government stopped paying compensation for ECHR decisions - lawyer

Complaints from Azerbaijan to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)  cover almost all the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, in recent years, more and more complaints are  about the violation of fundamental political rights and freedoms, said prominent lawyer Asabali Mustafayev in an interview with the program "Çətin sual"  of Turan agency; he is a legal representative of the ECtHR on many complaints from Azerbaijan. Among these applications, prevail cases of violation of freedom of assembly, expression, personal integrity. In addition, a lot of complaints are on violation of election rights. In 2016 the ECHR accepted 22 rules on the cases directed by  Mustafayev. "The vast majority of them are connected with the violation of personal freedom and inviolability. That is the concern of illegal arrests; 19 decisions relate to freedom of assembly; three decision are on  violation of property rights, or rather not the implementation of decisions of local courts in these cases.

The same happened in 2015; the decisions concerned violations of the right to fair elections, freedom of assembly and arbitrary arrests," Mustafayev said. According to him, the lawyers preparing a complaint to the ECHR,  are under a lot of pressure. "Examples are clear. Intigam Aliyev who created in this area a school has long been in prison and is now under pressure. His office is closed, he  cannot work out of the country. Khalid Bagirov who is actively working in recent years with the ECHR,  has been excluded from the Bar Association. Activity of my NGO that provides free legal aid to the population, is suspended. Ban on my exit from the country and seizure of bank accounts connected with my work on the ECHR, "the lawyer said. There are problems with the execution of the ECtHR judgments. Previously the government paid compensation in a timely manner. However, there are no legal action. So, if the ECHR found some moments of human rights violations, the government should eliminate it. "So, if  election law is violated, the government must take measures to prevent a recurrence in the future - to change the composition of election commissions, law reform. But these measures are not implemented. Individual measures like in the case  with Ilgar Mammadov also  are not met, and are not released from detention," continued the lawyer.

Mustafayev sent to the ECHR 300 applications, and on 76 of them have  been adopted   decisions. "However, on  none of these decisions are taken general measures, are not fulfilled and the individual measures, in particular for the return of property. There are major shortcomings  in Azerbaijan in this sphere," said Mustafayev. With regard to decisions in 2016, t even on them have not been paid compensations, with the exception of 1-2 cases earlier in the year. On 22 cases  of Mustafayev has  not been  paid 300,00  Euro compensation. "We are waiting now. Every time we write to the presidential administration, the answer is that in the near future the problem will be solved," Mustafayev said. -03B06-