CASE OF ABBAS AND OTHERS v. AZERBAIJAN
Violation of Article 11 - Freedom of assembly and association (Article 11-1 - Freedom of peaceful assembly);Violation of Article 11 - Freedom of assembly and association (Article 11-1 - Freedom of association);Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Criminal proceedings;Article 6-1 - Fair hearing;Article 6-3 - Rights of defence);Violation of Article 5 - Right to liberty and security (Article 5-1 - Deprivation of liberty)
André Potocki;Mārtiņš Mits
4. The applicants’ dates of birth and places of residence are given in the Appendix. 5. At the material time the first applicant was a chairman of the Sumgait city branch of an opposition party Musavat and the fourth applicant was a deputy chairman of the Goychay district branch of that party. The third applicant was a member of another opposition party, the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan. The second applicant was a member of the Coordination Council of an opposition group İctimai Palata. According to the applicants, they participated in a number of peaceful demonstrations organised by the opposition. 6. The number of opposition demonstrations increased in 2011. That tendency continued into the following years. Demonstrations were held, inter alia, on 2 April and 17 April 2011 and 20 October 2012. 7. The second applicant attended the demonstration of 2 April 2011. The first and third applicants attended the demonstration of 17 April 2011. According to the first applicant, he also intended to participate in the demonstration of 20 October 2012. 8. Prior to those demonstrations, on 18 March 2011, 11 April 2011 and 15 October 2012 respectively the organisers had given notice to the relevant authority, the Baku City Executive Authority (“the BCEA”). 9. The BCEA refused to authorise those demonstrations at the places indicated by the organisers and proposed a different location on the outskirts of Baku – the grounds of a driving school situated in the 20th residential area of the Sabail District. 10. The organisers nevertheless decided to hold the demonstrations as planned. According to the applicants, the demonstrations were intended to be peaceful and were conducted in a peaceful manner. The participants were demanding democratic reforms in the country and free and fair elections, and protesting against impediments on freedom of assembly. 11. The fourth applicant was one of the organisers of a rally planned by several opposition parties. The rally was to be held on 18 October 2011 in Goychay. The fourth applicant also intended to participate in that assembly. 12. According to the fourth applicant, prior to the rally of 18 October 2011, on 9 October 2011, he and the other organisers gave notice to the relevant authority, the Goychay District Executive Authority (“the GDEA”). The information about the rally was sent to the GDEA by post and the fourth applicant’s home address was indicated (for reference) as the address of the sender. 13. According to the fourth applicant, the rally was intended to be peaceful. Its purpose was to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Independence Day and to honour the memory of those buried in the Cemetery of Martyrs in the town of Goychay. 14. It appears that eventually the rally did not take place. 15. As mentioned above, the demonstration of 2 April 2011 was attended by the second applicant; the demonstration of 17 April 2011 was attended by the first and third applicants. However, the police began to disperse those demonstrations as soon as the protesters began to gather. 16. The circumstances related to the dispersal of the demonstrations of 2 April and 17 April 2011, the first, second and third applicants’ arrests and custody, and subsequent administrative proceedings against them are similar to those in Gafgaz Mammadov v. Azerbaijan (no. 60259/11, 15 October 2015) (see also Appendix). 17. The circumstances of the fourth and first applicants’ arrests on 15 October 2011 and 20 October 2012 respectively, their custody and subsequent administrative proceedings against them are similar to those in Huseynli and Others v. Azerbaijan (nos. 67360/11 and 2 others, 11 February 2016) (see also Appendix). 18. According to the first and third applicants, after being arrested during the dispersal of the demonstration of 17 April 2011 and brought to a police station, they were subjected to ill-treatment by the deputy chief of the Nasimi District Police Office, police officer S.N. 19. In a photograph, submitted to the Court by the first applicant and allegedly taken after his police custody, he is shown with a bruise on his forehead. In the other photograph, allegedly taken before his police custody, the first applicant is shown without any bruising on his forehead. 20. The third applicant submitted to the Court a medical report of 18 April 2011 confirming that he had a broken rib. According to the third applicant, that medical report was issued when he was taken to a hospital after his trial, before he was placed in a detention facility to serve his sentence. He also submitted a photograph in which he is shown with bruises on his body. 21. The applicants raised their ill-treatment complaints during the administrative proceedings following their arrest on 17 April 2011. Namely, in their appeals against the first-instance court’s decisions the applicants complained that they had been ill-treated during their police custody, and requested the Baku Court of Appeal to order a forensic examination of their injuries, to question particular witnesses and to obtain the review of the medical records drawn up at their check-in to a detention facility where they had served their sentence. 22. On 21 April and 4 May 2011 respectively the Baku Court of Appeal dismissed the applicants’ appeals and upheld the decisions of the firstinstance court (see Appendix). The appellate court disregarded the applicants’ ill-treatment complaints and their requests related to those complaints. 23. On an unspecified date the applicants lodged a complaint before the General Prosecutor’s Office asking it to conduct an investigation into the alleged ill-treatment. 24. On unspecified dates, the applicants were summoned to the Nasimi District prosecutor’s office and questioned in connection with their complaint of ill-treatment. 25. On 23 May and 2 July 2011 investigator M.H. adopted decisions refusing to open criminal proceedings into allegations of ill-treatment in respect of the third and first applicants respectively. 26. According to the applicants, for a certain period of time neither they nor their lawyer were informed about any actions taken by the authorities to investigate their ill-treatment complaints. Only in January 2012, after making enquiries about the outcome of the investigation, did they manage to obtain copies of the investigator’s above-mentioned decisions. 27. The applicants did not lodge a complaint with a supervising court against those decisions.