On October 6, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) announced two decisions on cases from Azerbaijan.
In one of them, the applicants were the newspaper “Hural” and its founder Avaz Zeynally. The applicants asked the ECHR to recognize a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention in respect of them. This refers to a fine of 10,000 manats to the newspaper “Hural” for a critical publication addressed to the former head of the presidential administration Ramiz Mehdiyev.
The applicants indicated that the source of this information was the newspaper “Gundem khabar”, however, the ECHR considered that the applicants should have verified the authenticity of the information and then published it. Therefore, there is no violation of freedom of expression in this case.
Another decision of the ECHR concerned the case “Mustafa Hajibeyli and others v. Azerbaijan”.
Hajibeyli and other oppositionists Huseyn Melikov, Rafig Dashdamirov, Tofig Yagublu, Rafig Manafly and Gulaga Aslanly complained of the violation of their rights under Article 11 (freedom of assembly) of the European Convention on Human Rights. It was about the violation of their rights to hold a peaceful protest in Baku in 2012.
The ECHR ordered to pay each applicant 4,500 euros and another 4,625 euros to all applicants for reimbursement of court costs.