ECHR fined Azerbaijan in the case of Novruzali Mamedov

Baku / 21.02.19 / Turan: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today announced the decision on the case of Mamedov and others against Azerbaijan. The complaint was filed in connection with the violation of rights and death in custody of the former editor of the newspaper Tolyshi Sado and the head of the Talysh cultural center Novruzali Mamedov. The first complaint was also written by Mamedov himself when he was alive, complaining about the ill-treatment of employees of the Ministry of National Security (MNS). On June 24, 2008, the court sentenced N. Mamedov under the Article 274 (high treason), and on August 17 he died in custody. The spouse and son of the deceased filed a new complaint in connection with the death of N. Mamedov. On April 16, 2011, the son of N.Mamedov died, and his spouse continued the proceedings in the court in his place. N.Mamedov was a linguist and worked at the Linguistic Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. He was a Talysh and conducted research on the Talysh language. Mamedov also worked as an editor of the bilingual newspaper "Tolishi Sado" and regularly published articles in it.

He was detained on February 2, 2007 and taken to the MNS, where he was interrogated about cooperation with Iranian intelligence. There Mamedov was subjected to physical pressure and torture. On February 3, 2007, he was unexpectedly released, but immediately on the street he was detained by the police and arrested for 15 days for "not submitting" to the police. After the trial, he was again taken to the MNS and tortured again. Despite the fact that Mamedov was seriously ill, they did not provide him with medical assistance and were not given any medicine.

At the same time, Mamedov was blackmailed by the arrest of his sons. On August 17, 2009, N.Mamedov died in custody as a result of cerebral ischemic infarction. After his death, the Nizami District Prosecutor's Office began a criminal investigation into the circumstances of his death and refused to file a lawsuit due to the lack of corpus delicti. However, the ECHR recognized the violation of the rights of N. Mamedov under the Article 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture), 5 (right to liberty and personal integrity) of the European Convention on Human Rights and decided to pay 20,000 euros to Maryland Mamedova as his widow"s compensation expenses. -06D-