Interim Resolution CM/ResDH(2022)251

Execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Mammadli group against Azerbaijan

(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 22 September 2022 at the 1443 rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies)

Application

Case

Judgment of

Final on

47145/14

MAMMADLI

19/04/2018

19/07/2018

68762/14+

ALIYEV

20/09/2018

04/02/2019

63571/16

IBRAHIMOV AND MAMMADOV

13/02/2020

13/06/2020

30778/15

KHADIJA ISMAYILOVA (No. 2)

27/02/2020

27/06/2020

68817/14

YUNUSOVA AND YUNUSOV (No. 2)

16/07/2020

16/10/2020

65583/13+

AZIZOV AND NOVRUZLU

18/02/2021

18/05/2021

The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”),

Recalling that, in respect of each applicant in this group of cases, the European Court found a violation of Article 18 taken in conjunction with Article 5 of the Convention, revealing “a troubling pattern of arbitrary arrest and detention of government critics, civil society activists and human-rights defenders through retaliatory prosecutions and misuse of criminal law in defiance of the rule of law”;

Recalling the Committee’s previous decisions, including the interim resolutions adopted at its 1369 th meeting (March 2020) (DH) and 1398 th meeting (March 2021) (DH), exhorting the authorities to ensure that all the necessary individual measures are taken in respect of each applicant without any further delay and the decision adopted at its 1390 th meeting (December 2020) (DH) to continue examining this group of cases at each of its human rights (DH) meetings until all the applicants’ convictions are quashed;

Recalling further the decisions adopted by the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan quashing the convictions of Ilgar Mammadov, Rasul Jafarov, Rashad Hasanov, Zaur Gurbanli, Uzeyir Mammadli and Rashadat Akhundov and awarding them compensation for non-pecuniary damage resulting from their unlawful arrest and imprisonment;

Noting with deep concern that despite previous calls the authorities have not submitted any information on the individual measures demonstrating tangible progress achieved in this regard,

STRESSED once again that, as confirmed by the Court in its judgment Ilgar Mammadov (Article 46 § 4 ) of 29 May 2019, restitutio in integrum in this group of cases urgently requires the quashing of the applicants’ convictions, their erasure from their criminal records and the elimination of all other consequences of the criminal charges brought against them, including by fully restoring their civil and political rights;

EXPRESSED its profound concern that, despite the Committee’s repeated calls, the remaining applicants’ guilty verdicts still stand and that there is no indication that any further progress has been made in the applicants’ cases before the Supreme Court, some of which have now been pending for four years;

UNDERLINED that the continuing failure to resolve the applicants’ cases is particularly worrying in the light of the findings of the Court in this group as regards the underlying political motivations for the unfounded criminal proceedings against the applicants,

STRONGLY URGED therefore the Azerbaijani authorities to put an immediate end to this situation by ensuring that all the necessary individual measures are taken in respect of all these applicants as a matter of priority.