Communicated on 29 August 2018

FIFTH SECTION

Application no. 6383/15 Araz Faig oglu GULIYEV against Azerbaijan lodged on 3 January 2015

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the criminal proceedings against the applicant who was convicted of illegal possession of weapons, encouraging religious hatred, organising public unrest, abusive disrespect against the national flag and violence against a public officer, and sentenced to eight years ’ imprisonment.

The applicant alleges a violation of Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (d) of the Convention on essentially two grounds: that his trial was unfair in that he was not able to cross-examine at any stage of the proceedings victims X.S. and F.R., whose statements served in part as the basis for his conviction, and that the domestic courts failed to assess his complaint concerning one of the attesting witnesses being mentally ill at the time when the latter participated in the search of the applicant ’ s residence when the weapons were discovered.

QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES

1. Did the applicant have a fair trial in the criminal proceedings against him, as required under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, was the applicant ’ s request to exclude particular evidence obtained with participation of an allegedly mentally ill attesting witness addressed by the domestic courts?

2. Was the applicant able to examine the victims before the trial panel that convicted him, as required by Article 6 § 3 (d) of the Convention?