Illegal Arrests of Bank Debtors Taking Dangerous Turn

In Azerbaijan, the cases of arrest of citizens who are unable to pay their bank debts are growing. The growing statistics of administrative prosecution for debt on the loan is a flagrant violation of the local legislation and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (ECHR).

It is the only country in Europe where citizens are illegally arrested for non-payment of debts. Banks report on the debtor to the courts, which decide on the need to repay the loan. Bailiffs draw up a report, incriminating the insolvent debtor Article 528.1 of the Administrative Code (refusal of execution of a judgment).

The father of two young children Mubariz Bayramov, 38 years old, unemployed, cannot repay a 3,000 AZN loan taken from Uni Bank. The Narimanov district court arrested him for 5 days due to non-enforcement of the decision to pay the debt, while the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the district court in force. The Court in this case violated the law, without asking about the debtor's financial situation, according to which he does not have a real opportunity to execute the judgment yet.

Another case of arrest because of a loan took place in March this year. Sabail District Court issued a decision on administrative arrest against Vahid Karimov, 28 years old, co-signer on a loan from Rabita Bank in the amount of 7,225.7 manats. ‘An unemployed father of two young children found 200 manats and paid off the debt. The debtor himself and two other co-signers have not paid anything, but no one bothers on this issue,’ said the founder of the law firm Anti Collector, Akram Hasanov, to whom the complainants appealed. The case has already been accepted by the European Court of Human Rights.

According to Hasanov, if a citizen fails to comply with a judgment for an invalid reason, the Administrative Violations Code permits arrest for a month. ‘The arrests are illegal, since the non-payment of the debt has a valid reason; the debtor has no income source. However, the lack of income and resource is not investigated and not taken into account, and the judicial decisions are unproven. That is, people are arrested supposedly not for the debt to the bank, but because of non-execution of the judgment. In fact, the arrests are pursuing the aim of intimidating the debtors.’

In this case, the courts violated article 528.1 of the Administrative Violations Code, the principle of presumption of innocence enshrined in the Constitution of Azerbaijan and international law; in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights, no one can be arrested for not having an opportunity to pay the debt .-- 17D-