Azerbaijan, Baku, 3 April / corr. Trend K. Zarbaliyeva/ There is no need to liquidate the additional appeal instance in Azerbaijan. There are disagreements in the juridical circles regarding the additional appeal instance, Ramiz Rzayev, chairman of the Supreme Court stated to Trend .
According to Rzayev, the there is a need of this practice in Azerbaijan at present.
The additional appeal is examined in Plenum of the Supreme Court only in the cases determined by law on the basis of the statement by Supreme Court Chairman, protest of the Prosecutor General and appeal of the Defense.
The additional appeal can be made in the course of year after the decision of cassation instance. The facts are checked neither in cassation nor in additional cassation instances.
In case, the legislation violations are discovered after the additional appeal is considered in the Supreme Court, the appeal is brought up for the consideration of Plenary session.
"The additional appeal instance is critical for elimination of certain court violations. Though such appeals can be made only in the cases determined by law, those who are dissatisfied with the court decision, make an additional appeal to the Plenum of the Supreme Court," Rzayev said.
The judge of Supreme Court Muzaffar Agazade said that the additional appeal has remained from the soviet period and it serves as a control function of the Supreme Court.
Agazade stressed the importance of that instance at present. "This instance is critical to eliminate the mistakes of courts," he said.
Agazadeh said that the number of cases considered as an appeal has decreased in comparison with other years. He said that this instance will loose its significance after certain period of time and will be abolished.
Some 26 decisions were adopted in the Plenum meetings in 2007, which is by 26 cases less than as compared with 2006.
Ten criminal cases were connected with the additional appeals, two - with the statement of Supreme Court Chairman, 4 - with the newly solved crimes and eight - with the decisions which are considered to be invalid.
Oktay Magsudov, the judge of the Supreme Court stated that there is no need for the additional appeal. "There is no need to bring the case to the additional appeal instance after it is thoroughly considered in previous instances," he said.
Vafaiddin Isayev, the judge of the Supreme Court said that the European Court on Human Rights does not consider the additional appeal as important.
The expert Rashid Hajili said that though the additional appeal is not required while appealing European Court, it is important while appealing Constitutional Court.
The basis and criteria for the additional appeal have not been determined yet, he said. According to Hajili, the consideration of a case in the Plenum depends upon the decision of chairman of Supreme Court and in many cases it leads to misuse of the law. "Once these misuse of law will be eliminated, the basis and criteria for the additional appeal will be determined," the expert said.
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