Council of Europe Launches Article 46 Mechanism in Ilgar Mammadov�s Case

Baku / 21.09.17 / Turan: The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to warn the Azerbaijani government about the consequences for not executing the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights. In particular, following the results of the 1294th meeting of the committee held on September 19-21, the Secretariat was instructed to prepare a draft interim resolution on the Ilgar Mammadov case. It will contain an official notification to Azerbaijan of the intention of the Committee of Ministers to submit to the European Court the issue of failure by the country to fulfill its obligation under Article 46 § 1 (failure to comply with the decision of the European Court) of the European Convention.

The resolution will be submitted to the meeting of the Committee on October 25, 2017, if by that time there will not be tangible progress in securing the release of Mammadov, the Turan news agency reported from the press service of the Council of Europe.

In the 68-year-old practice of the Council of Europe, Article 46 has never been applied. The essence of the application of Article 46 is that the Committee of Ministers conveys the question of not enforcing the decision of the ECHR to the court itself. If the latter comes to a conclusion that there is no execution and it is not legally justified, the matter is again submitted to the Committee of Ministers for taking appropriate measures in connection with the country's failure to meet its obligations to the organization. These measures can have the character of sanctions. However, experts have difficulties to predict in what form this can be implemented, because there is no precedent.

The leader of the REAL movement, Ilgar Mammadov, was arrested in connection with the riots in the town of Ismayilli on January 23-24, 2013. Despite arriving in the town after the public order was restored, Mammadov was accused of organizing riots and resisting the police and sentenced to 7 years in prison.

In May 2014, the ECHR ruled that the arrest and detention of Ilgar Mammadov violated many provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, including Articles 5.1, 5.4 and 6.2 on the right to liberty and security of person, the right to a fair trial and the principle of presumption of innocence, etc. The court came to a conclusion that Ilgar Mammadov was detained without any evidence of his guilt. - 06D--