Sources: Kavkaz Uzel, Human Rights Watch, European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (“ECHR”) on May 7, 2015 ordered the Azerbaijani authorities to pay human rights defender and journalist Emin Huseynov a compensation of 15,000 euros for violations of his rights,
Kavkaz-Uzel
reported. In a press
release
issued on May 7, 2015, the ECHR concluded that Huseynov was “ill-treated following an unlawful police raid on a private party to celebrate Che Guevara’s birthday in Baku.”
The ECHR found two violations of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment and lack of effective investigation) of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as violations of Articles 5 and 1 (right to liberty and security) and Article 11 (freedom of assembly) in the Emin Huseynov vs. Azerbaijan case.
The Court issued the following statement:
”
The Court found in particular that Mr Huseynov had been ill-treated during his arrest and whilst
in
police detention and that there had been no effective investigation in this respect. It further
found
that he had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty and that the police intervention had
amounted to
an unlawful interference with his freedom of assembly
.”
Huseynov, director of the now-defunct media watchdog Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, was detained on June 14, 2008. Huseynov was arrested without explanation or warning along with two of his colleagues while observing a celebration of the Che Guevara Fan Club at a local café in Baku, according to
Human Rights Watch
. Back in June 2008, Huseynov told Human Rights Watch that a police officer punched him in the head as they pushed him into a police car. He stated the following:
“I was singled out and taken into the deputy chief’s room. […] A man in a plainclothes took out his gun, hitting it on a table in front of me, cursing me and threatening to destroy me. He then hit me with a gun on the back of my neck and with a fist on my back. I felt dizzy and asked for an ambulance, but police refused to call one.”
Huseynov was subsequently released unconscious and hospitalized with a head trauma and high blood pressure. At the Centralized Emergency Medical Assistance Hospital, Huseynov was diagnosed with concussion and kept in intensive care for 3 days, per the
Human Rights Watch
report.
Following an official investigation, the Interior Ministry of Azerbaijan, however, concluded that Huseynov was not beaten in custody, and maintained that his health “deteriorated as a result of pre-existing illnesses and an acute nervous strain,”
Kavkaz-Uzel
reported. Huseynov subsequently lodged a criminal complaint about the alleged ill-treatment but his complaint was dismissed, as was his parallel civil action seeking compensation.
