Lawyer Annagi Hajibeyli�s Ban on Going Abroad Lifted, However ...

Baku / 05/16/19 / Turan: The Azerbaijani authorities lifted an almost five-year ban on leaving the country for the head of the Azerbaijan Lawyers Association, Annagi Hajibeyli.

The ban did not give the well-known lawyer the opportunity to perform complex eye surgery. The ban was introduced in 2014 in a criminal case against 40 local and international NGOs.

"Despite the fact that no charges were brought against the Azerbaijan Bar Association or against me personally, the organization"s accounts were frozen and I was forbidden to leave the country," said Hajibeyli.

For five years, he tried through courts to get the abolition of these prohibitions. During one of the meetings in November 2017, Hajibeyli became very nervous, and his eye pressure rose to 210.

"In one eye, I lost sight in childhood, and as a result of a sharp increase in pressure, there was a rupture of the retina in a healthy eye. Local doctors could not properly sew the retina and a complication occurred. Doctors cannot eliminate these consequences in Azerbaijan, but they did not release me abroad, "Hajibeyli said.

He was denied an exit even after in December 2018 the ECHR found the ban imposed unlawful and only last week the court canceled the "stop" imposed in 2014.

Now the lawyer is busy collecting 3 thousand dollars to pay for a complex operation in Turkey. Further delay may cause complete loss of vision.

The Lawyers Association of Azerbaijan, before the authorities did not interfere with the activities of independent civil society institutions, carried out extensive work in the field of legal education and provided free legal assistance to the poor.

In addition, this NGO implemented training programs for young lawyers, many of whom then became lawyers, prosecutors, judges.

Hajibeyli himself was also under pressure because of active citizenship. In 2005, he and another well-known lawyer and human rights activist Intigam Aliyev were denied admission to the Bar. In April 2018, the ECtHR recognized this decision of the Bar as unlawful. -06D--