Increase of judges' salaries is not panacea from corruption and dependence of higher executive power

Baku/22.06.22/Turan: In Azerbaijan the salaries of court chairmen and judges will go up. In this connection it is proposed to make changes to the Law "On Courts and Judges".

According to the amendments to the Law, the Chairman of the Supreme Court is proposed to receive a salary of 3,550 manats. Among other things, according to the current Law, the Chairman of the Supreme Court will be paid an additional payment in the amount of the monthly official salary. As a result, the Chairman of the Supreme Court will be paid a total of 7100 manats per month, taking into account his salary and additional payments to his official salary.

Some experts believe that the corruption in this sphere can be avoided by raising the salaries of judges. Others think that the problem is deeper.

According to the Judicial-Legal Council, 43 judges were disciplined for corruption offences during the lifetime of the structure (JLCl started its activity in February 2005), nine judges were prematurely terminated and 13 persons dismissed from their offices.

The Action Plan on "National Action Plan on Strengthening Struggle against Corruption in 2022-2026" also stipulates continuation of measures on gradual increase of salaries of employees of state bodies (structures), including law enforcement bodies, employees of anti-corruption commission secretariat as well as judges in order to improve social security and strengthening actions on prevention of corruption offenses in Azerbaijan.

Fazil Mustafa, a member of the Milli Majlis Committee on Human Rights, told Turan that judges' salaries should be at the highest level. "This can eradicate corruption. A judge now earns AZN 4 to 5.000. Half of this money goes for clerical work, often the judge has to pay out of his own pocket to employees because of their low salaries.  Therefore, in order to ensure that the judge does not take bribes, first of all, his salary must be high."

The deputy noted that at this point the increase would be 10 percent. "That's not such a big increase. To my thinking, it should be more. Because the provision of judges, first of all, should be high, so that they are not involved in bribery."

Lawyer Khalid Agaliyev said that the financial independence of judges is generally a good thing. "That is, providing them with normal wages to eliminate their dependence on someone, on some structures is a very important element.

However, the expert believes that it is unreasonable to think that with the increase of judges' salaries in Azerbaijan the problems in the judicial system will disappear. "Because the problems in the judicial sphere in Azerbaijan are those arising from the general political system. The courts are practically wholly under the influence of the executive branch. Therefore, I do not think that the increase in salaries can be an impetus to eliminate problems in the judicial system."-0-