Your trusted source

The Chamber of seven judges of the European Court of Human Rights passed unanimous judgment regarding the case of the Azerbaijani journalist Emin Huseynov, who was arrested at a café in Baku in 2008 and who had to be admitted to intensive care in a hospital following his release from police custody. The Court found that Mr Huseynov had been ill-treated during his arrest and whilst in police detention and that there had been no effective investigation in this respect. It further found that he had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty and that the police intervention had amounted to an unlawful interference with his freedom of assembly. The judgment is available on the website of the European Court.

The Court noted that Huseynov was in good health when taken into police custody yet he left the police station in an ambulance and was unconscious. The Court also found that Huseynov’s arrest and detention on 14 June 2008 had been arbitrary and unlawful.
The Court held that Azerbaijan was to pay Mr Huseynov EUR 15,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 5,000 in respect of costs and expenses.

In August 2014 the police searched the IRFS offices, whose chairman is Huseynov, and confiscating the computers and the documents, sealed the office. After that, Emin Huseynov has taken refuge in the Swiss Embassy in Baku since August 18 to escape the authorities’ repressions. He faces charges under three articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan – 308 (abuse of power), 213 (tax evasion) and 192 (illegal entrepreneurship). Human rights groups consider those charges politically motivated. Last time when he was arrested in 2008 for attending a party to celebrate Che Guevara’s birthday, the police beat him so badly that he got head trauma.

Related:

Azerbaijani human rights defender hides in Swiss Embassy to Baku saving himself from authority crackdowns  

FP: Azerbaijani human rights activist spent 6 months in Swiss embassy after not receiving help from US Embassy