Why aren't the judges whose decisions in the "Terter case" were overturned, punished?

Baku/11.11.22/Turan: On November 10, the Ganja Military Court, returned to the prosecutor's office the case of eight defendants in the "Terter case" - Natik Guluzade, Nijat Rzayev, Zaur Abdullayev, Veli Khalilov, Emin Aibov, Yalchyn Tanriverdizade, Orkhan Babayev and Emil Aliyev. During the  trial under the chairmanship of  Vugar Mammadov, the  judge of the Ganja Military Court,  it was decided to terminate the proceedings on this case. By a court decision, the criminal case was returned to the prosecutor's office, which exercises procedural supervision over the preliminary investigation.

It should be noted that the Plenum of the Supreme Court canceled the cassation decision against 18 persons convicted in the "Terter case" and sent them to the Court of Appeal for review. Earlier this month, the Ganja Court of Appeal overturned the verdict against 11 people and sent them to the court of first instance. On September 30, the Plenum of the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the Supreme Court in respect of 19 persons convicted in the "Terter case" for high treason and other grave crimes.

In this case, the question arises: why were not punished those who investigated the cases of these people, the judges who passed the verdict and upheld this verdict in the higher courts?

Rasul Jafarov, a human rights activist, head of the Baku Human Rights Club, shares his opinion on this issue in the “Difficult Question” program.

According to him, it is not yet known whether those who illegally convicted citizens will be punished, as the process continues. “The case of 19 convicts was returned to the prosecutor's office quite recently. In essence, this is a primary investigation. Therefore, now we are waiting for a decision to be made after the completion of this investigation,” he said.

The human rights activist stressed that in addition to the canceled decisions, cases that have been reviewed or whose consideration has not yet begun are waiting in the wings.

“Since our list contains the names of 31 persons, after the decisions of the Supreme Court regarding 19 convicts were canceled, the cases of the remaining 12 convicts will probably be re-examined. In a word, the process continues and, as a result, it is possible to terminate other cases,” Jafarov said, emphasizing that these 12 cases were also handled by the Military Prosecutor's Office.

The decision to punish investigators who fabricated criminal cases, judges who delivered wrong sentences, can only be made after the final verdict on these cases is passed, the human rights activist said.--0--