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MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES |
Decisions |
CM/Del/Dec(2024)1514/H46-9 |
5 December 2024 |
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1514th meeting, 3-5 December 2024 (DH)
H46-9 Muradova (Application No. 22684/05), Mammadov (Jalaloglu) (Application No. 34445/04) and Mikayil Mammadov groups (Application No. 4762/05) v. Azerbaijan Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments
Reference documents |
Decisions
The Deputies
1. recalled that the cases under examination concern torture or inhuman and degrading treatment or death inflicted by law enforcement officers or by private persons, and the lack of effective investigations in this respect;
2. regretted that no updated information on individual or general measures was provided for the present examination; and invited the authorities to provide information by the end of June 2025 at the latest;
As regards individual measures
3. recalled the unconditional obligation to pay the just satisfaction awarded to the applicants, and called on the authorities to pay the sums outstanding in the cases of Abdullayev, Badalyan, Emin Huseynov, Gurbanov and Mammadov, Khojoyan and Vardazaryan, Mustafayev and Others, Petrosyan, Lapshin, Saribekyan and Balyan, Hajiyev, Haziyev and Others, and Hilal Mammadov without further delay;
4. underlined their concern about the lack of progress reported on the ongoing investigations and invited the authorities again to clarify which investigatory steps may still be taken in the cases, what alternative solutions could be available if investigations are no longer possible due to procedural reasons;
5 reiterated their request to evaluate the possibility of reopening the investigations in the Khojoyan and Vardazaryan, Petrosyan and Saribekyan and Balyan cases based on the findings of the Court, with a view to investigating whether ethnic hatred played a role;
As regards general measures
6. noted again with regret the recent statement of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) that ill-treatment in law enforcement remains a persistent problem in Azerbaijan;
Measures aiming to enhance effectiveness of investigations
7. noted that significant improvement is necessary to increase supervision over investigation of
ill-treatment; invited the authorities in particular to address the root causes of the lengthy investigative and judicial proceedings; invited them further to take advantage of the technical expertise of the Council of Europe to explore ways to reduce the length of investigations by implementing specific training and capacity-building measures; and repeated their call for statistical data on the overall number of ill-treatment complaints covering all situations, including the number of full-fledged criminal investigations initiated, the number of convictions and the details of sentences imposed;
8. reiterated their invitation to the authorities to swiftly integrate the envisaged amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure to ensure that ill-treatment allegations are immediately investigated by a higher independent prosecutor and do not depend on any fact-finding or collection of evidence by the implicated or accused law enforcement agents, and that the burden of proof is shifted to the authorities, notably in situation of deprivation of liberty;
9. reiterated also their invitation to the authorities to consider removing the statutory time-limits for prosecution of torture and encouraged them to consider drawing inspiration from the best practices of other member States to enhance effectiveness of investigations, ensuring at the same time compliance with the requirements of the Convention;
10. called on the authorities to consider measures to ensure that, in all relevant cases, the police and prosecution services investigate whether ethnic hatred was a contributing factor in the ill-treatment of the victims;
Measures aimed at preventing ill-treatment
11. called on the authorities to send a strong high-level message of zero-tolerance of ill-treatment in police custody;
12. recalled that the CPT’s recommendations provide invaluable guidance to solve the problem of ill-treatment in law enforcement, and strongly encouraged the authorities to build on them to define an appropriate strategy; recalled the CPT and the Secretariat’s readiness to support the authorities in their work and to provide its expertise, in the spirit of the “cooperative and inclusive approach” called for in the Reykjavík Declaration;
13. invited the authorities, in their response, to include elements relating to all outstanding questions asked in their previous decisions, notably relating to the National Prevention Group and the Independent Monitoring Group within the Human Rights Commissioner’s office, the use of audio and video recording to interrogations, and the legal status and value of private forensic examinations of ill-treatment allegations;
Detainees’ access to non-advocate representatives before the European Court
14. repeated their invitation to the authorities to clarify whether non-advocate lawyers may have the right to provide legal assistance, and under which conditions, and whether in detention facilities, the lawyer-client confidentiality and correspondence without censorship is in practice ensured in detention facilities;
Next examination
15. decided to re-examine these groups at their 1545th meeting (December 2025) (DH) at the latest and, in the absence of tangible progress, to consider taking new action.