Bans on Leaving Azerbaijan Should Be Imposed Only by Courts - Ombudswoman

Baku/11.03.21/Turan: The Ombudswoman of Azerbaijan, Sabina Aliyeva, appealed to the country's parliament with a proposal to change the rules for prohibiting citizens from leaving the country.

Thus, the Ombudswoman proposes that this should be done only by a court decision.

She reflected her proposal in the report for 2020, which was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the Milli Majlis Committee on Human Rights.

In the opinion of the Ombudswoman, the restriction should be introduced only by a court decision and the citizen should be notified of this by mail, e-mail, mobile phone, etc.

Currently, a travel ban may be imposed due to credit, tax debts, non-execution of court decisions and a number of other issues. This can be done by: the tax service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and other bodies, without informing the citizen about it. People find out about this only at the border checkpoint when leaving the country, which creates serious problems. Aliyeva asks to submit her proposals to the legislation.

As Anar Mammadli, the head of the Center for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Education (CMEDE), said in an interview with Turan, at present, in addition to the courts, restrictions on leaving the country can be imposed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Emergencies, the Prosecutor General's Office, the State Border Service, the State Security Service, the civil service for mobilization and conscription, State Customs Committee.

He welcomed the Ombudsman's proposal. According to him, CMEDE monitored bans on leaving the country for the period 2014-2016 in relation to political and civic activists, human rights defenders and journalists.

“The decision on the ban should be introduced by the court and the citizen must participate in the process, know which body is introducing the ban. The freedom of movement of citizens cannot be restricted by arbitrary decisions of officials,” Mammadli said.

The ban should be a proportionate measure for a democratic society. It should be applied to those prosecuted on the basis of reliable evidence.

However, in a number of cases, even witnesses were prohibited from leaving for political reasons, which was later recognized by the European Court as a violation.

Journalist Natig Javadli describes the ban imposed against him in the following way: “In 2015, a group of colleagues and I went to Georgia. At the border, we were dropped off the train, announcing a ban on leaving the country imposed on us. We were returned to Baku and only after contacting various authorities did we learn that the ban was introduced in the criminal case on Meydan TV. At that moment we were not even involved as witnesses. We were not traveling for 4 years and applied to the European Court of Human Rights. In the cases of some of us, there are already decisions of the Strasbourg court,” Javadli said. -03B-