10:18, 14 December 2018

ECtHR treats ban for 11 persons to leave Azerbaijan as violation

The building of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Photo: RFE/RL

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has passed its decision on cases of 11 Azerbaijani citizens who complained about the ban on leaving the country.

It was introduced for the applicants in 2012-2016, although they figured in criminal cases only as witnesses, not as suspects or defendants.

Complaints were filed by Azer Gasymly, the head of the Majlis of the "ReAl" Party; Amina Gadjieva, a sister of Djakhangir Gadjiev, the arrested former head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan; and Azad Mursaliev, a nephew of the former rector of the Azerbaijani International University.

Similar complaints were submitted by journalists Ainur Imranova, Gyular Mekhtizade, Izolda Agaeva, Ainur Geidarova, Aiten Alekperova (Farkhadova), and lawyers Rovshan Ragimova, Annagi Gadjibeyli, as well as Dilara Velieva, the "contact.az" reports.

The ECtHR has obliged the country's authorities to pay the applicants 5000 euros as compensation for moral harm and 1000 euros as compensation for court expenses.

The ban on leaving the country is used in Azerbaijan as a way to pressure the activists and journalists who criticize the authorities. Thus, in the fall of 2016, the rights defender Intigam Aliev was not allowed to leave the country after his statements about human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 14, 2018 at 05:08 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.