Journalists Ayten Farhadova and Aynura Heydarova Address ECHR

The journalists Ayten Farhadova and Aynura Heydarova filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in relation to the ban on leaving Azerbaijan.

According to the lawyer Fariz Namazly, the ban is associated with the investigation of a criminal case against the Internet publication Meydan TV.

 The journalists in the autumn of 2015 were banned from leaving Azerbaijan by the Investigation Department on Grave Crimes of the General Prosecutor's Office in the criminal case against the Meydan TV staff. The journalists' rights were limited, despite the fact that they did not occupy any posts and were not regular staff of Meydan TV.

Farhadova was interrogated in the case against Meydan TV.

In the absence of employees of the criminal investigation department of the city of Ganja in the country, Aynura Heydarova in November 2015 came to her home and took the parents to the police and interrogated for hours about the journalistic activities of their daughter.

At the same time employees of the Ministry of Taxes checked observance of the tax obligations, and no violations were found.

Azerbaijani courts refused to consider the complaint of the journalists to the Prosecutor General.

So they decided to appeal to the ECHR.

According to the lawyer, the applicants raise the question of violation of their rights guaranteed by Article 6.1 (right of access to a court), 13 (right to an effective legal remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights as well as Article 2 (right to freedom of movement) Protocol 4 of this document. ----06D-