ECtHR awards compensation to Azerbaijani human rights defender Iskenderov for arrest

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that in 2011, human rights defender Vidadi Iskenderov was unreasonably arrested in a criminal case. The ECtHR obliged the Azerbaijan’s authorities to pay Vidadi Iskenderov 3500 euros.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Vidadi Iskenderov, the head of the NGO “Assistance to the Defence of Democracy”, who took part in opposition rallies in Baku on April 2 and 17, 2011, was sentenced to five and fifteen days of arrest. After the human rights defender served the term of the second administrative arrest, he was charged under criminal articles. Vidadi Iskenderov was charged with interference in the voting in the parliamentary elections on November 7, 2010, in which he ran for a seat in the parliament. On August 27, 2011, the court sentenced Vidadi Iskenderov to three years of imprisonment, and the human rights organization “Amnesty International” (AI) recognized him as a political prisoner.

Today, the ECtHR has posted on its website the decision on the complaint filed by Vidadi Iskenderov. The European Court recognized the violation of the Vidadi Iskenderov’s rights under Part 3 of Article 5 (right to liberty and security, reasonableness of pre-trial detention) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECtHR obliged the Azerbaijan’s authority to pay the human rights defender 3000 euros for moral damages and 500 euros for compensation of legal costs.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 17, 2022 at 04:29 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.