IPD: at bloggers' trial in Azerbaijan human rights are broken

Experts of the Azerbaijani Institute of Peace and Democracy (IPD) have analysed the course of the litigation on the case of young bloggers Adnan Gadjizade and Emin Milli, accused of hooliganism and inflicting bodily injuries, and concluded that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is broken during the trial.

Thus, the judge had rejected the petitions of advocates to hold the trial in a large room, because of significant public interest in this case. The judge also rejected the petitions to stop the criminal prosecution of the defendants and return the case to the prosecutor's office for additional inquiry, in view of rough violations admitted in the course of preliminary investigation. Besides, the petition of defendant Gadjizade asking to stop the case because of violation of his rights during detention and not allowing him to contact his advocate was also rejected. The judge also refused to release the defendants on bail.

Along with that, the court accepted the list of witnesses presented by the prosecution; however it had not accepted the whole list of witnesses of the defence, which put the parties into unequal positions, as reported by the IPD.

The office of the Sabail District Court and the secretariat of Judges Guseinov refused to tell anything on the bloggers' case.