Your trusted source

On 22 May the European Court of Human Rights ruled on the case of the leader of Azerbaijani opposition movement REAL Ilgar Mammadov, the Azerbaijani news agency Turan reports.

According to that decision, the courts in Azerbaijan had violated the rights of Ilgar Mammadov stipulated in Articles 5.1 and 5.4 (right on freedom), 6.02 (presumption of innocence), 5-18 (unjustified restriction on freedom) of the Convention on Human Rights.

For this reason, the Azerbaijani government has to pay 22,000 euros to Mammadov as compensation.

Note that on March 17 the court sentenced the leader of the Azerbaijani opposition movement "REAL" Ilgar Mammadov to seven, and deputy chairman of the "Musavat" party Tofig Yagublu - to five years' imprisonment. They were accused of organizing riots in Ismailly in January last year. Unrests in Ismailli district began at the evening of January 23, after an accident in which the nephew of the head of the region Nizami Alekperov and son of the Minister of Labor Fizuli Alekperov - Vugar Alekperov - were involved. His car crashed into another car, Alekperov then began to insult the local residents. According to one of Ismailli residents, relative of the minister took a pack of money out of his pocket and said: "You have no dignity (geyret), I can buy your mothers and sisters for this money. "Information about the insults spread through the district and angry residents began to smash the commercial entities of Alekperov’s family up. Internal troops and Special Forces were involved in the incident. They fired rubber bullets and tear gas. As a result of clashes many people were arrested and dozens injured.

Ilgar Mammadov and a group of oppositionists who came to Ismaili on 24 January were not allowed to enter the city by the police and were sent back.

Ismailli region is located in the north of Azerbaijan and is bordered by Guba region, where in March 2012 the population rioted against lawlessness of Azerbaijani officials.