The European Court begins communication on the case of Hilal Mamedov

Baku / 02.10.18 / Turan: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has begun communication on the case of Hilal Mamedov, the chief editor of the newspaper Tolyshi Sado (Voice of Talysh) He was arrested in June 2012 on charges of drug trafficking, treason, inciting ethnic hatred. In September 2013, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Mamedov was recognized as a political prisoner, and was pardoned in March 2017. The applicant asks the ECHR to declare all court decisions in his case illegal and to recognize his prosecution for journalistic and public activities.

The court sent questions on his case to the government of Azerbaijan. At the same time, the ECHR began communicating in five more cases from Azerbaijan. The applicant in one of them is Shahla Abbasaliyeva, a sister of the ex-OPON officer Elchin Amiraslanov, who is serving a life sentence. She points out that her brother was fired from job. She also complains that in a number of media Amirraslanov is mentioned as an "enemy of the people." Other complaints are related to not recognizing a diploma from a private university, conducting a search in an apartment, not granting a residence permit. Another statement concerns the convicted person"s arrest of his letters to the media. -06D--