ECtHR Announced Decisions in Cases of 5 Azerbaijani Activists

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced its decision in the case of "Ilhamiz Guliyev and Others v. Azerbaijan," which combined complaints regarding the administrative arrests of 5 activists.

Specifically, the applicants in this case were human rights defender Ilhamiz Guliyev, member of the "Workers' Platform" Confederation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan Mohyaddin Orujev, public activist Emin Akhundov, and Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP) members Orkhan Bakhish, Ramid Nagiyev, and Kenan Zeynalov.

The applicants complained about the violation of their right to a fair trial, guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, during their administrative arrests in 2023.

Due to the similar nature of the complaints, they were grouped together.

The Government of Azerbaijan submitted unilateral declarations to the ECtHR, expressing readiness to acknowledge the violations of the activists' rights and to pay each of them €900 as compensation for non-pecuniary damage and €225 for costs and expenses.

The compensation amounts were calculated based on previous similar ECtHR judgments regarding cases from Azerbaijan, and the applicants raised no objections.

The ECtHR deemed the Government's unilateral declarations and the proposed compensation to be "acceptable and sufficient," and therefore struck the applications from its list of cases.

It should be noted that three of the five applicants—Ilhamiz Guliyev, Mohyaddin Orujev, and Kenan Zeynalov—are currently back in detention, but now facing criminal charges.