Human rights defenders point to mutual responsibility in Azerbaijan's judicial system

In Azerbaijan, a secretary of court hearings of the Barda District Court is accused of fraud. The Azerbaijan's judicial system needs radical reforms, and some isolated manifestations of the fight against corruption will not solve the problems, analysts say.

According to the investigators' version, Eldjan Alyshov made false promises to relatives of defendants that the arrested would be released. The defendants' relatives handed 24,000 manats (14,171 US dollars) over to Eldjan Alyshov.

Arrests of court officials and dismissal of judges do not solve the problems of the Azerbaijan's judicial system, says Anar Mamedli, the director of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS).

There are cases when a person in fact violated the law, but a court does not take into account mitigating circumstances and sentences the person to the maximum punishment, the human rights defender emphasizes.

Khalid Agaliev, a lawyer from the Institute of Media Rights, points out the shortcomings of the judicial system in Azerbaijan. "Out of 871 decisions, made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) last year, 37 were against Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan, the right to a fair trial was most often violated," Khalid Agaliev emphasized.

Azerbaijan is also one of the six countries which residents filed the largest number of complaints to the European Court. "2000 complaints from Azerbaijan are under consideration by the ECtHR. In such a state of affairs in the courts, people are looking for roundabout ways to achieve justice and often fall victim to fraudsters," Khalid Agaliev explained.