Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 1 / Trend, I. Izzet /
Statements on the dependence of judicial appointments on authorities are not realistic, the chairman of the Baku Court of Appeal and Judges of the Electoral Committee of Judges, Iman Naghiyev announced on Thursday.
According to Naghiev, no such dependency exists. "Try to prove that while undertaking any activity I depended on anyone. If you prove it, I will admit that you are right. Demonstrate and prove it. I have been working as a judge for 25 years. Tell me of any case that will demonstrate my dependency when adopting decisions throughout these 25 years. In that case, I will confirm your findings. But, there is no such case," Naghiyev said.
Naghiyev noted that statements on preferences given to candidates for the position of a judge based on one's political affiliation as well as talks about the candidates with highest scores being failed in an examination are not realistic. "No examination for the admission of judges was held without the participation of observers. I can not take the thought that candidates that scored the highest scores during the written test and examinations could have failed during an oral exam. This is not possible. There are rules defined by the Council of Europe experts. A member of the examination committee rates the responses based on these rules. Admission of the candidate entirely depends on his overall score. Statements on the selection of judges based on their political affiliations are not true.
The list of recent appointments even includes the names of those with distinct political beliefs, that is, members of opposition parties," the chairman said.
Speaking on the duties of courts during the electoral process, Naghiyev noted that these obligations are governed by law, and complaints on violations of election laws considered by courts in accordance with the requirements of the Election Code and the Code of Administrative Procedure. "A number of violations was witnessed during the 2010 elections to the Milli Majlis associated with the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Decisions of local courts on these violations were not considered by the European Court of Human Rights to be in compliance with international conventions. However, this can not be considered an example of mass violations during the election," Naghiyev said.