CE Commissioner claims political nature of Khalid Bagirov's case

Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe (CE) Commissioner for Human Rights, has sent a letter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in connection with the forthcoming consideration of the complaint filed by Khalid Bagirov, a lawyer from Azerbaijani, who was deprived of his advocate status.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 10, 2014, the Bar Association made a decision to suspend the powers of Khalid Bagirov as an advocate. The lawyer himself has called it biased. According to him, the above decision is biased and is aimed to punish him for his professional activities and to force him to keep silence. His complaint to the ECtHR has been taken into consideration as a priority.

In his letter, Nils Muižnieks asks the ECtHR to pay attention to the political nature of the case of Khalid Bagirov, who was deprived of his advocate status against the background of prosecutions of human rights defenders and advocates.

According to Nils Muižnieks, the case of Khalid Bagirov, whom the CE Commissioner for Human Rights met several times in Strasbourg and Baku, is a clear illustration of the problems in Azerbaijan with the implementation of freedom of expression and the functioning of the judicial system.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.