On November 18, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) announced two new decisions on Azerbaijan.
In the case Sayyara Ahmadova v. Azerbaijan, the applicant complained about eviction, followed by demolition of her house, without clear legal grounds.
3 years after Ahamdova purchased her home in Baku, a local court ruled in favor of a State Oil Company’s claim for demolishing the house, alleging unauthorized construction on a state-owned land reserved for oil production.
The applicant argument was based on the violations of her right to property and respect for privacy, which was accepted by the Court. As a result, the ECHR ruled that the determination of the violation in itself constituted a fair compensation for non-pecuniary damage to the applicant.
Likewise, the European Court ruled that there was a violation of the rights of the applicants in the case Par and Hyodo v. Azerbaijan.
This complaint refers to the detention by the customs authorities and confiscation of undeclared money belonging to a Turkish and a Japanese citizen, while they were passing through Baku International Airport in 2010 and 2011.
Both of them were held by the customs authorities at the Baku airport with undeclared cash and threatened with smuggling charges. In the end, they had their money confiscated by the airport agents and were released without any indictments.
The applicants claimed that their money was taken illegally and under coercion, and that their property rights were infringed upon.
In this case, according to the ECHR decision, the Azerbaijani government must pay 210,000 euros to the first applicant and 127,000 euros to the second applicant for pecuniary damage, resulting in a total of 337,000 euros in reparations.
