In Azerbaijan, pardoned journalists file complaint to the European Court

Yesterday, on May 26, a complaint was sent to the European Court for Human Rights on behalf of Rovshan Kabirli, editor-in-chief of the "Mukalifate" newspaper, and Yashar Agazade, an employee of the edition.

Both journalist were convicted last May for publishing the article "AMAY - Alievs' Trademark" to 2.5 years of imprisonment, and 7 months later they were pardoned by a decree of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev.

They had been criminated under Articles 147.2 ("Slander") and 148 ("Insult") of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, the Day.az Agency reports with reference to the Institute for Media Rights.

The complaint to the European Court asserts that "the decisions of local courts were illegitimate." They had been passed based on the claim lodged by Djalal Aliev and entailed the journalists' verdicts, the Agency named "Hot News of Azerbaijan" reports with reference to the same Institute.

The complaint asserts that the claim had misinterpreted Articles 147.1 and 147.2 of the Code, while Article 7, 12, 47 and 50 of the Azerbaijani Constitution were ignored by the court. Besides, the journalists assert that local courts had broken Articles 6 ("Right to fair trial") and 10 ("Freedom of expression") of the European Convention on Human Rights and, consequently, insist on their right to claim compensations.