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Azerbaijani society is discussing unexpected punishment for family members of the former head of the presidential administration Ramiz Mehdiyev, noting the humanity of the system towards these people. Everyone remembers how every day on TV channels they show participants in prohibited weddings and commemorations lined up in a police station, when all ordinary people are punished with heavy fines. And of the participants in the scandalous wedding in Novkhany, only two organizers were punished.
The case with the wedding participants of Ramiz Mehdiyev’s granddaughter is not an isolated one. In this and the previous year, former high-ranking officials were prematurely released from prison. Others have been replaced pre-trial detention with home detention.
At the same time, the courts in Azerbaijan refuse to humanize the punishment of opposition politicians. Musavatist Tofig Yagublu is being held in custody, although he could attend court sessions from home. The Nasimi court in Baku rejected a motion to transfer a member of the Presidium of the Popular Front Party Ayaz Maharramov to house arrest.
Answering questions from Turan, lawyer Khalid Agaliyev agreed that the jurisprudence in Azerbaijan shows a selective attitude towards offenders. In the decision of the judges, the social status, the present and past positions of citizens matter.
“In general, mitigation of punishments – early release of prisoners, replacement of pre-trial imprisonment with alternative punishments is selective, applied to a specific, privileged category of offenders. But I do not consider this use of choice of punishment illegal. Legislation clearly fixes the listed mitigations. The laws do not say that for some criminal acts 15 years of imprisonment or 7 years of punishment must be imposed. If there is no threat to the investigation, if the accused does not interfere with the investigation, then there are no legal grounds for his arrest before the trial. If a person who received 7 years, served 4 years of his sentence, the issue of his early release is also not illegal. However, in cases with political overtones, there is usually no complete information about the charges. Naturally, society doubts the decisions made by a dubious judicial system. With a fair judicial system, such doubts are groundless.
The lawyer believes that this issue should be discussed in the light of the decisions of the European Court on Azerbaijan.
“The ECtHR concluded that most of the cases related to Azerbaijan are illegal, starting from the pre-trial stage. In the cases in which the European Court has accepted the complaint, harsh sentences are recorded. It would be good to apply humane treatment to this category of persons when passing sentences,” said H. Agaliyev.
He stressed that the openly discriminatory policy of punishment deliberately indicates the errors of the Azerbaijani legal procedure.
“The fact that the policy of punishment is humane to those who have held positions in the government, but in relation to those who were against the government, to independent figures, it is cruel is a serious problem. This approach is unacceptable. The law should be applied to everyone on the same the same principles of humanity,” said Khalid Agaliyev.
Lawyer Samir Aliyev disagrees with him. Answering a question from Turan, he said:
“Everyone in the country is equal before the law, regardless of religious, racial, official or other characteristics. If someone gets concessions, then this cannot be attributed to the entire law enforcement system. There are officials and judges defending the rule of law. “And those who make unjust and illegal decisions will sooner or later be exposed, justice will prevail,” concluded lawyer Aliyev.
Turan[:]
