ECtHR upholds complaints of Azerbaijani Jehovah's Witnesses*

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has made two decisions on complaints of Azerbaijani Jehovah's Witnesses*, obliging the government to pay them more than 24,000 euros of compensations.

On February 20, the ECtHR announced its decision on the case "Nasirov et al versus Azerbaijan". The applicants were seven Azerbaijani citizens-members of Jehovah's Witnesses*.

According to the ECtHR, in 2010 they were detained and taken to police stations for exhorting religious ideas. They were brought to administrative responsibility and fined by the amount equivalent to 200 euros on charges of distributing religious literature unauthorized by the authorities.

The ECtHR found violation of the applicants' rights under Articles 5.1 (the right to the liberty and personal immunity) and 9 (the freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), and obliged the authorities to pay compensations for the inflicted moral harm in the amount of 3000 euros to each applicant.

Also, the ECtHR announced its decision on the case "Religious Community of Jehovah's Witnesses* versus Azerbaijan". The complaint concerned the ban on the import of several texts of Jehovah's Witnesses*.

The ECtHR found a violation of the applicant's rights under Article 10 (freedom of self-expression and thought), and obliged the country's authorities to pay the compensation in the amount of 3000 euros for moral harm and 42.56 euros for legal expenses.

* 396 Russian organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses were recognized as extremist in Russia; their activities were banned by a court decision.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 20, 2020 at 11:29 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.