22:42, 13 January 2007

Institute for Peace and Democracy in Azerbaijan will disclose the names of politically dependent judges

On January 16, the Institute for Peace and Democracy in Azerbaijan will make public its list of judges who are passing politically-motivated verdicts. In the opinion of the organization, analysis of the legislative base and operation of the judicial system allows to conclude on the absence of an independent judiciary in Azerbaijan. "The courts are completely dependent on the executive power, and the judge - on the orders from above and the corruption throughout the whole vertical and horizontal of the judicial bodies," the press release runs.

During the last year, four presentations were made of the lists of dependent and non-professional judges, whose names were published by mass media. The announcement of the names of the judges related to most resonant trials held throughout all the years of monitoring will take place on January 16. They promise that the "leader" in the list will be awarded with a striped long robe of the "Customized Judge."

Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent