The ECHR found the former Azerbaijani minister to be in violation.

The European Court of Human Rights upheld the complaint of former Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Nijat Guliyev and ordered him to pay 4,000 euros in compensation.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, Nijat Guliyev, who served as Azerbaijan's Minister of Foreign Economic Relations from 1993 to 1995, was arrested on August 8, 2013. On April 2, 2014, the Absheron District Court of Azerbaijan sentenced Guliyev to three years in prison. Guliyev stated that the charges were fabricated. In August 2016, Guliyev was released.

According to the ECHR ruling, Guliyev was detained on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons, but he claimed the real reason for his arrest was his participation in the opposition National Council of Democratic Forces. The search and seizure of Guliyev's car was carried out without a court order and without the participation of a defense lawyer. Furthermore, the applicant himself was not present during the search and seizure of his property, according to the court ruling published on February 17.

Guliyev complained that his conviction was based on fabricated evidence. Specifically, he claimed that the proceedings were initiated on the basis of false evidence, that he was not given the opportunity to effectively challenge this evidence or present evidence in his favor, and that his arguments and requests were ignored or dismissed without proper justification.

Furthermore, at the beginning of the pre-trial proceedings, Guliyev did not have a lawyer of his own choosing and had no contact with his family.

The ECtHR considered that the lack of a proper judicial review of the credibility of the evidence used against the applicant raised serious issues regarding the fairness of the proceedings. The Court concluded that the applicant's right to effectively challenge the evidence against him, his right to present evidence in his favor, and his right to a reasoned decision were not respected. Guliyev's right to adequate legal assistance was also violated. "These factors taken together rendered the criminal proceedings unfair," the ECHR ruling stated.

The ECHR found a violation of Guliyev's rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered him to pay compensation in the amount of 4,000 euros for moral damages and 95 euros for postal expenses.

Fuad Agayev, who represented Guliyev at the ECHR, told a Caucasian Knot correspondent that the Strasbourg court's ruling confirmed the unlawfulness of the court decisions in Guliyev's case.