ECtHR announces decisions on seven Azerbaijani citizens' complaints

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found rights violations of seven Azerbaijani citizens and ordered to pay compensation to them for their moral harm plus legal costs amounting in total to 65,300 euros.

Today, the ECtHR has announced its decisions on the cases of Abbas Fakhraddin, Sakhib Rustamli, Tyurkel Alisoy, Sarvar Abdulali, Kochari Nagiev, Ali Safarli and Niman Askerov. They had complained about the violation of the freedom of assembly and administrative arrests of them for the participation in peaceful protests in Baku on April 2 and April 17, 2011, and October 20, 2012.

The ECtHR found that, although the protests were sanctioned by the authorities, they were peaceful; however, the applicants were subjected to physical pressure after detention, at police stations.

The ECtHR also pointed to the "restriction of citizens' rights to hold peaceful assemblies in Azerbaijan, and the impossibility to receive sanctions on holding actions in the city centre."

The advocate Asabali Mustafaev, who represented the interests of six out of the seven applicants, has positively assessed the ECtHR's decisions. However, he believes that the compensations should have been much higher, since it was a violation of fundamental freedoms.

According to his version, "in similar cases from other countries, compensations appointed by the ECtHR make 12-15,000 euros."

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