Judges Punished

Baku / 14.04.17 / Turan: The Judicial-Legal Council (JLC) brought 15 judges to disciplinary responsibility for gross violations in the decision-making regarding the selection of measures of restraint. Three more judges were deprived of their powers early. These decisions were made at the meeting of the JLC on April 13.

At the meeting, the growing number of decisions on judicial arrests and the extension of their terms was pointed out. In order to eliminate shortcomings in this area and create a single judicial practice, it was decided to send a review letter to all courts.

Also, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against six judges who violated the law, which led to the creation of conditions for corruption. However the JLC does not specify the names of the punished judges.

President Ilham Aliyev issued an order on February 10 on the humanization of the punishment policy, which recommended that courts extend the practice of punishments not related to deprivation of liberty and choose alternative preventive measures that do not involve arrest.

However, with regard to civil and religious activists, the courts continue to take extreme measures. Recent examples of this are pre-trial arrest of the theologian Sardar Babayev, accused of violating the rules of religious propaganda, as well as the conviction of the blogger Mehman Huseynov on charges of defamation.

The charges against both of them contradict the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights and the precedent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, experts say. -03C06--