17:27, 16 February 2017

ECtHR upholds complaints of 11 citizens of Azerbaijan

Policemen disperse opposition protest action, Baku, December 10, 2012. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the 'Caucasian Knot'.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of the rights of the eleven Azerbaijani citizens, arrested in the course of opposition’s actions in 2010-2014, and obliged the country’s authorities to pay compensation to them totalling to 138,870 euros.

The ECtHR’s decision on the cases of 11 Azerbaijani applicants was announced today, on February 16, and is posted on the website of the ECtHR.

According to the advocate Asabali Mustafaev, who represented the interests of ten applicants, in their complaints, they stated the violation of their right to the freedom of assembly and self-expression.

"The complaints of oppositional activists concerned their administrative arrests for taking part in peaceful protests in Baku in 2010-2014. The authorities dispersed those demonstrations under the pretext that the municipal authorities had not sanctioned them. However, the ECtHR has concluded that the very refusal to sanction the actions was illegal,” Mr Mustafaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent