European Court to Announce Decision on Journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov Case on September 17

Baku / 10.09.20 / Turan: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on September 17 will announce a decision on the complaint of the Azerbaijani journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov against the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey. This is stated in a message on the website of the European Court.

The case concerns his arrest and imprisonment on charges of high treason.

During Mirkadyrov's residence in Turkey, the authorities of this country in April 2014 deprived him of his accreditation and residence permit as a journalist, after which he was deported to Azerbaijan.

In December 2015, the Baku Grave Crimes Court sentenced Mirkadyrov to six years in prison. In March 2016, the Baku Court of Appeal replaced the actual sentence with a suspended sentence.

During pre-trial detention, he was banned from telephone conversations, meetings and correspondence with anyone other than lawyers.

Local courts dismissed his pre-trial detention and restraint appeals.

In July 2014, the Ministry of National Security and the General Prosecutor's Office issued a statement in which, without any court decision, they presented Mirkadyrov as an agent of the Armenian intelligence.

The applicant asked to recognize the violation by the Azerbaijani government of his rights under Articles 5 (right to liberty and security), 6.2 (presumption of innocence), 8 (right to respect for private and family life), 10 (freedom of expression) and 18 (limits on the use of restrictions on rights) and the Turkish government under Articles 5 and 10.       –06D-