The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) announced decisions on 4 complaints from Azerbaijan.
Khalid Agaliyev, head of the ECHR decisions monitoring group, told Turan that the plaintiffs asked to recognize the violation of the rights to freedom of expression and a fair trial.
In particular, the complaint of Avaz Zeynalli spoke about the violation of freedom of expression in connection with fines for publications in the “Xural” publication.
In particular, two Articles criticized the now convicted former executive director of the State Media Fund, Vugar Safarli. According to his lawsuit, “Xural” was fined 5,000 manats. According to the decision of the ECHR, the government must pay the applicant 6,000 euros as compensation.
Another decision of the ECHR is related to the imprisonment of the editor of the Azadlig newspaper, Ganimat Zahid, on charges of hooliganism. According to the criminal case, in 2007 Zahid allegedly caused injuries to citizen Sevgilada Guliyeva. Local courts found Zahid guilty and sentenced him to 4 years in prison. In 2010 he was pardoned. The European Court recognized the violation of Zahid’s rights to a fair trial and ruled to pay him compensation of 6,000 euros.
Another two complaints concerned the refusal to provide responses to requests for information. However, the ECHR found these statements inadmissible.