Plenum of Supreme Court to Consider Cases of Ilgar Mammadov and Rasul Jafarov

Baku /15.04.20 / Turan: The issue of reviewing the sentences against the head of the REAL party Ilgar Mammadov and the human rights activist Rasul Jafarov is on the agenda of the meeting of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan to be held on April 23.

Mammadov and Jafarov are among the 8 applicants for whom the European Court of Human Rights has found violations of rights under Article 18 of the European Convention, that is, political motives for criminal prosecution.

Since September 2019, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and other structures and officials of the organization have repeatedly called on the Azerbaijani authorities to fully comply with the decisions of the ECHR regarding 8 applicants - Ilgar Mammadov, Rasul Jafarov, Intigam Aliyev, Anar Mammadli, Zaur Gurbanli, Uzeyir Mammadli, Rashadat Akhundov and Rashad Hasanov in order to restore all their rights. However, these appeals were not taken into account and maintaining a criminal record became an obstacle to the participation of several applicants as candidates for deputies in the February 9 parliamentary elections.

Finally, on March 5, the Committee of Ministers adopted an interim resolution on this issue and announced a deadline of April 30, 2020, by which the Azerbaijani government should report on measures taken to implement the ECHR decision in relation to these persons.

Ilgar Mammadov and Rasul Jafarov received notices the day before that their cases were included in the agenda of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan on April 23.

Mammadov’s lawyer Fuad Agayev, in an interview with a Turan correspondent, did not rule out the complete reversal of the previous sentences and court decisions in relation to his client.

According to the lawyer, the criminal procedure legislation of Azerbaijan allows such a cancellation if a violation of his rights was recognized by the Constitutional Court or the ECHR against a person.

 With respect to Ilgar Mammadov, there were three rulings of the ECHR and now the Plenum of the Supreme Court will consider the cases in accordance with the third decision of the Strasbourg court of May 29, 2019.

Mammadov himself, commenting on the upcoming case at the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court on his Facebook page, recalled that on February 29 he was invited to meet with Adalat Veliyev, head of the Presidential Administration’s political affairs department, to discuss dialogue on the development of democracy and promoting national interests.

And now, in his opinion, the upcoming meeting of the Plenum of the Supreme Court is an opportunity to implement a dialogue initiative.

The head of the Human Rights Club, Rasul Jafarov, told Turan that his case was also included in the agenda of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan on April 23.

“According to the Code of Criminal Procedure of Azerbaijan, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan, having reconsidered the case due to newly discovered circumstances, can take three types of decisions: to cancel the previous decisions of the courts to return the case to the court of first instance or the court of appeal, to change the decision of the Supreme Court, or to annul the decision of the Supreme Court in general and make a new decision. Honestly, I expect the third option. Because only with this option, our rights will be fully restored within the framework of the national legislation and the Constitution of the country,” said Jafarov.

It is not clear whether the Plenum of the Supreme Court will examine the cases of six other persons mentioned in the resolution of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. At least Anar Mammadli and Intigam Aliyev did not receive information about this from the Supreme Court. Four other activists also did not report sending them notices from the Supreme Court.   –06B-