On 23 April, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan terminated on acquittal grounds the criminal case against the opposition REAL Party leader Ilgar Mammadov, reported APA. According to the decision, Mammadov will be paid 234 000 manat for moral damage. The Azerbaijani lawyer, human rights activist, and president of the Human Rights Club Rasul Jafarov’s criminal case was also terminated and he will get a compensation of 57 400 manat for moral damage. 

Mammadov expressed his satisfaction with the decision and called it “a great victory and an important event in the judicial system of Azerbaijan.”

Mammadov announced his intention to run for President of Azerbaijan in 2013. In February 2013 he was arrested and charged with a series of crimes, including causing mass disorder. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. In May 2014 the Court ruled that Mammadov had been persecuted in order to silence or punish him for his criticism of the government. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers called for Mammadov’s immediate and unconditional release. Nevertheless, Mammadov remained in detention.

In December 2017 the Committee of Ministers made the unprecedented step of referring a question to the European Court of Human Rights under the infringement proceedings of Article 46 § 1 of the Convention, regarding Azerbaijan’s failure to release and acquit Mammadov. Mammadov was freed in August 2018, but due to the fact that his criminal conviction remained, he was barred from standing in elections.

In May 2019 the European Court issued its judgment in the infringement proceedings. It stated clearly that Azerbaijan had failed to comply with the 2014 judgment. It stated that Mammadov’s criminal conviction and all of its consequences must be erased.

As for Jafarov, he was convicted in 2014 of abuse of power, forgery and embezzlement, and tax evasion. Two years later, he was pardoned, but the charges were not dropped from him, despite the decisions of the European Court. 

On 30 January 2020, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted the resolution on the “Report on communications in connection with political prisoners in Azerbaijan” and its recommendations. Amongst the recommendations, the resolution called for the Azerbaijani government to promptly take every possible step towards full implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and to ensure, that  Ilgar Mammadov and Anar Mammadli might stand as candidates in elections and that Rasul Jafarov can resume his professional activities as a lawyer (Caucasus Watch reported).