Leila Yunus: in Azerbaijan judges persecute independent advocates

In Azerbaijan, independent advocates are prosecuted, and it is done by judges instead of defending citizens' rights. This was stated on April 16 by Leila Yunus, Director of Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), at the roundtable "State of courts in Azerbaijan and lawlessness in the judiciary".

Ms Yunus gave an example of a suit lodged by Gazanfar Kerimov, judge of the Sheki Appeal Court, against advocate Intigam Aliev, head of the Society of Legal Education (SLE), and advocate of the Society Nurlana Alieva. The claimant accuses the human rights activists of abusing his honour and dignity.

The reason for the suit was the book published under direction of Intigam and Nurlana Alievs under the title "Disciplinary Responsibility of Judges". The book describes a fact of rough violation by judge Kerimov of remedial norms in the course of one judicial investigation in 2005. In particular, he had included evidences of already deceased person into the protocol of the case and later into the court decision. The authors of the book borrowed the facts from the statement of the Judicial-Legal Board of Azerbaijan, which had considered the issue on attracting Kerimov to disciplinary responsibility.

Now the claimant demands apologies, publication of refutation and collection from human rights activists of 20,000 manats (about 24,000 US dollars) in favour of the Sheki children's home. The claim is under consideration of the Nasimin District Court of Baku, and the new hearing on this case will take place on April 30.

Representatives of the SLE find the claim groundless. "The above book was published on the basis of monitoring of the judiciary practice. The information was downloaded from the website of the Judicial-Legal Board. The book contains no facts offending Kerimov's honour and dignity," said the head of the SLE Intigam Aliev.

According to Mr Aliev, the authorities have already "neutralized" the majority of mass media, parties and NGOs, and now encroach on the last islands of independent organizations. He assets that he was prosecuted for drafting citizens' applications to the European Court on Human Rights.

The leader of the IPD Leila Yunus has also noted the customized character of this suit. "Intigam Aliev helps in preparing citizens' applications to the European Court and wins these cases. The authorities try to make him silent," said Ms Yunus.

She has noted that the judges guilty of passing illegal verdicts continue working and are never punished.

As her second example of dependence of the courts from the executive authority, Leila Yunus mentioned the verdict to Asif Marzili, editor of the "Tazadlar" newspaper passed on April 7 and cancellation of the verdict on April 9. The journalist was sentenced to one year of imprisonment for slander. However, after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev expressed his negative altitude to this verdict, the Baku Appeal Court hastily cancelled the verdict.