Source:
wcd.coe.int
On September 24, the Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe
adopted an interim resolution demanding an immediate release of Ilgar Mammadov, leader of the Republicanist Alternative Movement (ReAl). The Committee strongly urged the Azerbaijani authorities to guarantee in the meantime his physical integrity.
The Committee of Ministers denounced violations in Mammadov’s case and called “into question the well-foundedness of the criminal proceedings against” him.
As reported earlier, Mammadov was arrested on February 4, 2013, on charges of inciting mass violence, after he travelled to report on street riots which had broken out in northwest Azerbaijan the previous day.
Mammadov was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Sheki Court in Baku in March 2014. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in May 2014 that his arrest contravened the European Convention on Human Rights. The judgment became final on October 13, 2014, when the Strasbourg Court rejected the appeal from the government of Azerbaijan. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe demanded his release “without delay” on December 4, 2014. This request was ignored.
