{"id":2666,"date":"2017-10-25T14:53:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2666"},"modified":"2017-10-26T15:04:05","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T15:04:05","slug":"human-rights-group-to-take-unprecedented-legal-step-against-azerbaijan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2666","title":{"rendered":"Human rights group to take unprecedented legal step against Azerbaijan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By GINGER HERVEY
\nPolitico<\/em><\/p>\n

The country\u2019s refusal to release a political prisoner could lead to its expulsion from the Council.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Council of Europe on Wednesday formally agreed to take legal action against Azerbaijan over its refusal to release an opposition politician from jail.<\/p>\n

At its weekly meeting, the human rights organization\u2019s Committee of Ministers \u2014 the foreign ministers of the 47 countries that make up the Strasbourg-based group \u2014 notified Azerbaijan of its intention<\/a> to trigger Article 46.4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Article 46.4 has never been used<\/a> and it could ultimately lead to Azerbaijan being expelled from the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n

The case in question involves Ilgar Mammadov, a leader of the opposition Republican Alternative (ReAL) movement who was considering running against President Ilham Aliyev in the 2013 elections. Mammadov was arrested in February of that year after attending and reporting on an anti-government protest in the Azerbaijani town of Ismayilli that turned violent.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that his detention was a human rights violation \u2014 but he is still in prison three years later.<\/p>\n

The Committee of Ministers gave Azerbaijan until November 29 to set out its response in writing \u2014 and unless the country agrees to release Mammadov, the committee will send the case back to the European Court of Human Rights (the committee oversees implementation of the court\u2019s judgments).<\/p>\n

In a statement to POLITICO last month about the Mammadov case, the Azerbaijan foreign ministry said it \u201cfirmly rejects any claim suggesting that it has refused to implement judgements\u201d of the human rights court.<\/p>\n

The use of Article 46.4 in relation to Azerbaijan was raised in December 2016 and resurfaced last month when the committee declared its intention to trigger the procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAzerbaijan continues to deprive Mammadov of his liberty against the judgment of the highest court \u2014 which clearly stated his arrest and detention were arbitrary,\u201d Thorbj\u00f8rn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, said in a statement at the time. \u201cThe time has come for Azerbaijan to think hard about its obligations as a member of the Council of Europe and whether it still wants to fulfill them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Azerbaijan may be the most acute example of a country defying judgments of the court, it is far from the only one. There are nearly 10,000 court judgments that have not been put into effect, at varying stages of implementation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By GINGER HERVEY Politico The country\u2019s refusal to release a political prisoner could lead to its expulsion from the Council. The Council of Europe on [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions\/2668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}