The IPD has been monitoring the Azeri judicial system since 2006. The institute monitors the investigations and decisions on national legislation and international law with a particular emphasis on the European Convention for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Absence of adversarial trial
IPD tracked socially significant legal trials, freedom of speech trials and politically motivated trials at all stages: from the court of original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court, covering a trial spanning several years. Amid the monitoring, IPD concluded that even though the national courts are created on the basis of the laws of Azerbaijan, the laws do not correlate with the criteria of ‘quality of law’, the courts totally depend on and are subordinate to the executive government and do not give enough procedural guarantees for objective and fair legal proceedings. The absence of adversarial trial and equality of arms was also observed during the monitoring of the judicial system.

Trials of families
 Apart from the abovementioned, IPD concluded that the legal processes do not always end up only with the conviction of the accused. They are often accompanied by the trials of family members of the accused (to exert pressure on the accused), trials on the use of torture and other infringements of rights of the accused. In particular, Emil Mammedov was arrested on June 17, 2008, seven days before the court of original jurisdiction sentenced his father- Novruzali Mammedov to 10 years of imprisonment for spying for Iran. IPD considers that the aim of this arrest was to blackmail Novruzali Mammedov.

Novruzali Mamedov is a scholar and editor-in-chief of the only Talysh-language newspaper Tolyshi Sedo (Voice of the Talysh) in Azerbaijan (Talysh is the Irainian ethnic group residing in Azerbaijan). According to IPD, Novruzali was tortured in Correctional Colony No15. As a consequence of this, his attorney filed an appeal in Sabail District Court on the violation of Articles 3(prohibition of torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) and Article 13 (right for an effective remedy) of European Convention of Human Rights. However, with the judgment dating March 06, 2009 the court did not satisfy an appeal.

 

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