Azerbaijan, Baku, 13 June / corr. Trend I. Alizade/ On 13 June, Milli Majlis (the Azerbaijani parliament) approved the appointments of new judges to the Supreme and Appeal Courts of Baku, Gandja, Sumgayit and Shirvan (previously Alibayramli) cities of Azerbaijan, introduced by the president.
The Court- Legal Council introduced to President the list of pretenders to the post of judges in the above-mentioned courts several days ago.
The judges of the Appeal Court of Baku - Rashadat Agayev, Ilham Jafarov, Alasgar Aliyev, Akif Isgandarov, Tatyana Goldman and Ali Seyfaliyev were appointed to the post of judges of the Supreme Court; Mirzali Abbasov, Aygun Abdullyeva, Madina Bagirova, Hasan Ahmadov, Mehpara Ahmadova, Mehti Hasanov, Aflatun Gasimov, Faig Gasimov, Mammad Mammadov, Vagif Musaguluyev, Jamal Ramazanov and Jamila Safiyeva were appointed the judges of the Appeal Court of Baku; Vali Abdullayev, Shafiga Aliyeva and Rahib Nabizade were appointed to the Appeal Court of Gandja; Azer Huseynov, Telman Guluyev, Latifa Mammadova, Huseyn Nabiyev, Afag Nuriyey and Gulnara Tagizade - to the Appeal Court of Sumgayit; Kamran Akbarov, Imran Hajibayov and Zeynal Zeynal - to the Appeal Court of Shirvan.
There are 327 judges in Azerbaijan at present.
Prior to the appointments, a total of 27 judges were employed in the Supreme Court, 31 - in the Appeal Court of Baku and 7 - in the Appeal Courts of Gandja, Sumgayit, Shirvan and Shaki.
According to legislation, there must be 45 judges in the Supreme Court, 50 - in Appeal Court of Baku and 14 in other Appeal Courts.
Azerbaijan has the smallest number of judges in the list of European countries. The shortage of judges leads to the tough schedule of the judges.
As a result of the monitoring in the judicial system, over 30 judges were dismissed in 2007. Some 50 judges were imposed disciplinary punishment, three judges were dismissed due to corruption and three were demoted for the last two years.
According to the presidential degree, the number of judges has increased by 50% in 2007. It enables to facilitate the work of judges and to secure examination of cases more carefully.
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