Prosecutor�s Office Urgently �Opens� Lawyer Intigam Aliyev�s Office

Baku / 09/14/19 / Turan: The Prosecutor General"s Office unexpectedly returned to the Legal Education Society, headed by the well-known lawyer Intigam Aliyev, an office that was sealed five years ago at his arrest.

During this time, the owner of the premises, and the organization itself, unsuccessfully demanded that the prosecutor's office return the office. However, on September 12, Aliyev received a call from the prosecutor"s office and was asked to urgently come to the office. The next day, the premises and all documentation that was illegally seized in August 2014 were returned to Intigam Aliyev.

"We were also returned the materials of the cases that we conducted before the domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights. By the way, during communication on these cases, the government constantly asserted that the prosecutor"s office didn"t have any documents, and supposedly they all were handed over to my lawyer back in October 2015. Yesterday more than 150 cases were returned to me," Intigam Aliyev told Turan. All the financial documents illegally confiscated during the search in 2015 were also returned.

He found it difficult to name the exact reasons for this turn. However, it is possible that this is due to the recent visit of the PACE President to Baku.

On the same days, the head of the Directorate for Human Rights and the Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, Christos Sakumopoulos, visited Baku and met with

Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov. According to some reports, the representative of Strasbourg quite sharply raised questions related to the violation of human rights and the restriction of the activities of NGOs.

At the same time, a number of other restrictions continue to be applied to Aliyev. So, the organization"s bank accounts and his personal accounts remain under arrest and he is prohibited from leaving the country.

Intigam Aliyev also cannot engage in advocacy, despite the decision of the ECHR that the refusal of the Bar Association to accept Intigam Aliyev and another well-known lawyer, Annagi Hajibeyli, is illegal.

In addition, since 2014, Aliyev has not been paid fees for legal services in cases that he won at the ECHR, etc.

According to Aliyev, the authorities slowly remove restrictions from activists and their affairs are used as a subject of bargaining with international organizations.

Intigam Aliyev was arrested in August 2014 and sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on charges of embezzlement and tax evasion.

Amnesty International recognized him as a "prisoner of conscience". On March 28, 2016, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan decided to replace Aliyev"s real term with a suspended sentence and released him. -06B-