Court Refused to Consider Ali Karimli’s Claim against Ministry of Internal Affairs

Baku / 21.02.20 / Turan: The Baku Administrative Court refused to consider the claim of the head of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Ali Karimli on the issue of his non-issuance of a general passport.

Recall that in 2006 the Ministry of Internal Affairs, referring to the criminal case of 1994, refused to issue a new passport to Karimli, after the expiration of the previous one.

In 2009, Karimli sent a complaint to the ECHR regarding the non-issuance of a passport, and in 2015 the Strasbourg court found a violation of his rights to freedom of movement and decided to pay him 8.6 thousand euros.

The defense of Karimli in November 2016 announced that Azerbaijan had not implemented this decision.

In January of this year, Karimli filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Office for Passports, Registration and Migration of this agency. The lawsuit was scheduled for February 20.

Kerimli also asked to attract Chingiz Askerov, the plenipotentiary representative of Azerbaijan to the ECHR, as a third party. However, that court did not do this.

During the meeting, lawyer Fakhraddin Mehdiyev alleged a violation of Karimli's fundamental rights.

"This violation of the law has been going on for many years. The ECHR has spoken and acknowledged the violation of Ali Karimli’s rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, which Azerbaijan has ratified. Azerbaijan is obliged to comply with the decisions of the Strasbourg court, but does not comply with it," the lawyer said.

Alirza Abilov, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, opposed the consideration of the lawsuit, saying that Azerbaijani courts have already examined Ali Karimli’s lawsuit and found it lawful that the passport not be issued. These court decisions have not been canceled and therefore there is no need to return to this issue.

He also noted that despite the existence of a verdict of the ECHR, previous decisions of Azerbaijani courts have not been canceled. "The Plenum of the Supreme Court did not review this case and did not cancel the court’s decision," Rzayev said.

The judge decided that the claim was unacceptable and refused to consider it.

Karimli considers the decision of the court and the refusal to issue him a passport politically motivated. On his Facebook page, he recalled that a ban on his travel abroad was imposed after his critical appearances in 2006. “In the conditions of rapid development of social networks, the world is well aware of the real situation in Azerbaijan, and there is no point in forbidding someone to travel somewhere if he can communicate with the whole world via the Internet on the air.

The refusal to issue a passport to me every time becomes a subject of international criticism, which in the latest report of the OSCE / ODIHR monitoring mission was called “violation of fundamental rights,” Karimli wrote. —06D-