Azerbaijani Activists' Case: Court Hears Arguments Citing ECtHR Violations

Anar Mammadli

On November 17, the Baku Court on Grave Crimes held a hearing for Anar Mammadli, head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS), and public activist Anar Abdulla. Judge Aygun Gurbanova presided.

Javad Javadli, Mammadli's lawyer, asked the court to get specific documents from the Azerbaijani government's representative to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). He said these papers would disprove the current charges by showing that they lack any legal or factual support. He believes they would also help show that the case is politically motivated. The court turned down this request.

The defense's arguments targeted the government's failure to follow earlier ECtHR rulings, which are now being used to support the new charges:

• Illegal Previous Conviction: The defense mentioned the ECtHR's April 2018 ruling on Mammadli's 2013 prison sentence. The European Court said the imprisonment was unlawful, baseless, and politically driven, and demanded that the conviction be cancelled. The lawyer pointed out that Mammadli's old conviction is still on the books and is being used as a reason to make the new criminal case worse. The defense said that this goes against Article 46 of the Convention and the country's Constitution.

• Unregistered NGO Status: The defense also spoke about the ECtHR's January 2023 decision. This decision said that the government's repeated refusal to register EMDS (SMDT) was unfair and violated Article 11 (freedom of association). The lawyer said it doesn't make sense for the government to use the organization's unregistered status—an issue created by the government itself—as a primary reason for the current charges against Mammadli.

The defense said that the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers has been talking about this since 2019. They have stated that the Mammadli group cases have unresolved, ongoing issues, requiring Mammadli's conviction to be canceled and the NGO registration problems to be fixed.

Public activist Anar Abdulla, who faces seven charges, including smuggling and illegal business activity, gave his statement and answered questions from the prosecutor. Mammadli, arrested on April 29, 2024, is charged with smuggling and other money-related crimes. He says he is innocent. International human rights groups consider him a political prisoner.

The next court meeting, which will move forward with witness statements, is scheduled for December 8.