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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) voiced its decision over an application against Azerbaijan finding a violation of the rights of the editor-in-chief of the Talysh newspaper Tolishi Sado, Hilal Mammadov. The judgment is published on the website of the court.

The court held that there was a violation of Article 3 (Prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights as regards the applicant’s ill-treatment by the police and the lack of an effective investigation of his allegations.

According to the judgment, Hilal Mammadov was detained on his way home. Six or seven plain-clothes police officers assaulted him near a metro station in Baku. Without showing their official identification, they stated to beat him and then slipped narcotic substances into his pocket. They handcuffed him and dragged him into their car, where they continued to beat him. In the car, they started to insult him, making comments about his ethnic origin. The applicant did not even realise that he had been arrested by the police until he was taken to the Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Taking into consideration these and other facts, the ECHR held that Azerbaijan is to pay Mammadov EUR 13,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 2,500 in respect of costs and expenses.

Hilal Mammadov, the editor-in-chief of the only Talysh newspaper in Azerbaijan, Tolyshi Sado, was arrested by the Azerbaijani police on 21 June, 2012. He was charged with drug possession; later the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan accused him of high treason and espionage. Among others, Mammadov is known for the popular on the Internet video “Who are you? Come on, good-by.” In summer 2012, three protests were held in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow demanding to cease the ethnocide and release Hilal Mammadov.