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Court postpones preliminary hearing on case of those arrested over 16 October incidents for seventh time

16 May 2014 08:36 (UTC +04:00)

It was stated that the lawyers of the defendants didn’t participate at the hearing presided over by judge Afghan Hajiyev. The judge said the hearing could not be continued as they were absent. The hearing was postponed to June 6.

The hearing had been postponed for 6 times, as the defendants or their lawyers didn’t attend the hearing.

Those arrested over the clashes between the police and demonstrators in Baku on October 16, 2013 appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

Head of the Central Board of Musavat Party Arif Hajili, chairman of Azerbaijan Democratic Party Sardar Jalaloglu, chairman of Azerbaijan People’s Party Panah Huseyn, editor-in-chief of the Yeni Musavat newspaper Rauf Arifoglu, chairman of Umid (Hope) Party were pardoned in 2005. They appealed to the European Court of Human Rights claiming that the Azerbaijani Government violated the 6th (right to a fair trial) and 11th (freedom of assembly) clauses of the European Convention. ECtHR passed a decision in their favor.

The decision passed by the ECtHR was considered at the plenary meeting of the Supreme Court on January 24, 2014. The Supreme Court repealed all court decisions passed regarding 16 October convicts and sent back the materials of the criminal case to Baku Court of Grave Crimes.