ECHR Announces Judgment in Rafig Tagi Case

Baku / 05.12.19 / Turan: The European Court of Human Rights today announced a decision on the complaint of the late publicist Rafig Tagi and his colleague Samir Huseynov (Sadagatoglu).

The complaint was related to the conviction for imprisonment for publishing the article Europe and We in the Sanat newspaper in 2006.

In the article Tagi compared Islam and Christianity in terms of morality and humanism. After the publication Tagi and the editor of the newspaper Samir Sadagatoglu faced pressure from believers, who saw in the article an insult to the Prophet Muhammad. In Iran, one of the ayatollahs issued a fatwa to kill them.

A court in Baku found both guilty under Art. 283.2.2 (inciting religious hatred) of the Criminal Code and sentenced Tagi to 3 years, and Sadagatoglu to 4 years in prison. At the end of 2007, both were pardoned by the President of Azerbaijan.

The ECHR found in this case a violation of Art. 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In 2011, Tagi's lawyer appealed to the ECHR. The complaint stated that the state intervened in freedom of religion and expression of convicted persons.

The ECHR decided that compensation has to be paid to Tagi’s wife and Sadagatoglu in amount of 12,850 euros  each of them

On November 19, 2011, Tagi was attacked by an unknown person who inflicted numerous stab wounds on the publicist. Four days later, Tagi died in the hospital.

 This crime has not yet been solved. Before his death, Tagi linked the attack on him with criticism of Iran’s political power.

The complaint about the failure to solve this crime is in the ECHR in the process of communication.   -16D06-