Baku / 14.01.20 / Turan: The leader of the Republican Alternative party, Ilgar Mammadov, expressed support for the statement of the PACE rapporteur.
“We support this statement. Not admitting us to the elections further diminished the authority of the authorities. Despite the fact that I and some of our other activists are not allowed to the elections, the Real Republicans bloc will continue to participate in the elections,” Mammadov said.
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2020 January 14 (Tuesday) 19:17:20
Rapporteur condemns exclusion of candidates from Azerbaijani parliamentary elections as ‘undemocratic’
Strasbourg, 14.01.2020 – Sunna Ævarsdottir (Iceland, SOC), rapporteur on ‘reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan’, today condemned the exclusion of Ilgar Mammadov and other potential candidates from the Azerbaijani parliamentary elections on 9 February.
“At the beginning of December, the Committee of Ministers called on Azerbaijan to implement judgments of the European Court of Human Rights by ensuring that Ilgar Mammadov and other former political prisoners could stand as candidates in the next parliamentary elections”, recalled Ms Ævarsdottir.
“Azerbaijan’s failure to fulfil this binding obligation shows contempt for the authority of the Court and the Committee of Ministers and disdain for the rule of law. By excluding genuine opposition from the electoral process, the current regime reveals its increasingly undemocratic nature.
This new failure creates a legal and political crisis of unprecedented gravity. Azerbaijan has already failed to respond to the ‘nuclear option’ of infringement proceedings. The Committee of Ministers must now decide what further action to take,” she concluded.
Recall that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on September 26, 2019 called on the Azerbaijani authorities to annul the convictions and remove criminal records from eight activists, collectively known as the “Ilgar Mammadov’s group,” whose rights were found to be recognized by the Strasbourg court. Among these activists are Ilgar Mammadov, Rasul Jafarov, Zaur Gurbanli, Anar Mammadli, Intigam Aliyev, Uzeyir Mammadli, Rashadat Akhundov and Rashad Hasanov.
The Azerbaijani government was to completely restore their rights by December 31, that is, remove the criminal record. However, this was not done, and these persons cannot run for parliament because of the criminal record. –06B-
Politics
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