In Azerbaijan, SC dismisses appeal filed by leader of "ReAl" against CEC's refusal to register him as presidential candidate

The Azerbaijan's Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed an appeal filed by Ilgar Mamedov, the leader of the civil movement "Republican Alternative" (ReAl), against the refusal of the Azerbaijan's Central Election Commission (CEC) to register him as a presidential candidate. Thus, Ilgar Mamedov has finally lost chances to participate in the presidential election.

The "Caucasian Knot" has earlier reported that on September 13, the CEC refused to register Ilgar Mamedov, who is at present kept in custody, as a presidential candidate. The refusal was explained by insufficient number of valid signatures submitted in favour of Ilgar Mamedov.

At the court session held on September 27, advocate Khalid Bagirov called the CEC's decision to refuse in registration "biased" and criticized the method for determining invalid signatures. The advocate has also submitted numerous acts from citizens, whose signatures were recognized as invalid, acknowledging the authenticity of their signatures.

Since complaints about violations of human rights at the presidential election cannot be filed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the appeal will be filed to the UN Committee on Human Rights instead.

In his turn, Ramiz Ibragimov, a CEC member, who represents the CEC at the Supreme Court, told journalists that the CEC had no bias against Ilgar Mamedov. He has explained his position by saying that "when shortcomings were revealed by the approval of his nomination, the CEC provided the nominee with several more days to address them."

Let us remind you that Ilgar Mamedov is charged of organizing mass riots in the town of Ismailly and is kept in custody since February 4.