Azerbaijan, Baku, 26 January / Trend corr. К.Zarbaliyeva / The Court-law Council did not start the disciplinary production with regard to the judges whose sentences were canceled by the European Court.
Javid Huseynov, the head of the Court-law Council department, stated to Trend that the chairman of the Supreme Court did not appeal to Court-law Council in order to start the disciplinary consideration on the judges whose sentences were cancelled by the European Court. Huseynov stated that the decision made by the European Court would be submitted to the Supreme Court.
Huseynov said that the cases cannot be considered by the Council without the Supreme Court appeal
Chingiz Askarov, the Azerbaijani representative to the European Court of Human rights, stated that some of the decisions taken by the European Court against Azerbaijan were connected with the sentences. The two sentences were connected with the unsatisfied judgment and three were connected with the refusal from registration of NGOs, Askarov said.
The attorney Rashid Hajili stated to Trend that the decisions taken against Azerbaijan would be carefully studied by Supreme Court. The bill on Courts and judges envisages the disciplinary consideration against judges if European Court cancels the sentence made by the judges. If the European Court grounded its decision on the violations then a disciplinary consideration must be started against the judge," Hajili stated.
Hajili does not rule out the possibilities of good reasons to start disciplinary production with regard to the courts in all the decisions adopted in Azerbaijan. "The appeals connected with the registration and non-fulfillment of the court verdicts are sent to the European Court only after they are examined in all court instances of the country. The Azerbaijani citizens have a right to appeal to the domestic courts concerning action and inaction of the physical persons, civil servants refusing to fulfill the decision of the courts and the Ministry of Justice," Hajili said.
If the courts violate the law while bringing verdict on these problems they will be punished, the lawyer Fuad Agayev said.
According to Agayev, the Supreme Court did not appeal Court-Law council to begin disciplinary production with regard to the courts, the verdicts of which were canceled in the European Court and it does not mean that such appeals will not be made any more.
"Supreme Court can not avoid it in any way. Azerbaijan signed on the dotted line to fulfill the decisions of the European Court," the lawyer said.
Fikret Mammadov, the minister of justice of Azerbaijan said to journalists in 2007 that the verdict of European Court concerning Azerbaijan were brought in with regard to the cases examined in line with the old soviet laws. According to minister, Azerbaijani courts brought in fair verdicts on the basis of the laws adopted in the Soviet times.
"The laws of the Soviet period can not correspond to the laws of the democratic society. The verdicts brought by the European Court concerning these problems are connected with these mistakes. Currently the Azerbaijani legislation is much more improved in this regard," the minister said.
Azerbaijan ratified European Convention on the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in January 2001. The Azerbaijani citizens have a right to appeal to the European Court from 2008.
The European Court has brought in 11 verdicts concerning Azerbaijan until now.