The Plenum of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan issued an acquittal in relation to the previously convicted leader of the REAL Party Ilgar Mammadov and the human rights activist Rasul Jafarov, Turan reports.

The plenum overturned the verdicts handed down earlier, finding their guilt unproven and acquitted both.

At the same time, the court decided to pay 57,400 manats to Jafarov for moral damage, and 234,000 manats to Mammadov.

Recall that Ilgar Mammadov was sentenced to 7 years in prison "for organizing unrest" in the city of Ismayilli in January 2013. International organizations recognized Mammadov as a political prisoner.

The European Court of Human Rights issued several decisions in the Mammadov case, finding his arrest and imprisonment unreasonable. The structures of the Council of Europe and PACE repeatedly called for the release of Mammadov and cancellation of all the charges against him. However, the Azerbaijani authorities ignored these demands for many years. Only in 2018 he was released on parole, but the charges were not dropped from him.

Similar decisions were made by the European Court of Human Rights in the Rasul Jafarov case and were also ignored by the Azerbaijani government. Recognized by the international community as a political prisoner, Jafarov was convicted in 2014 of abuse of power, forgery and embezzlement, and tax evasion. Two years later, he was pardoned, but the charges were not dropped from him, despite the decisions of the European Court.

Commenting on the decision of the Supreme Court for Turan News Agency today, Mammadov called it “a great victory and an important event in the judicial system of Azerbaijan.”

Rasul Jafarov also did not conceal his satisfaction with the fact that the decision of the European Court, even with a delay, was implemented.

24 April 2020 / 11:54