The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a decision on May 4 regarding the complaint of Azerbaijani citizen Zeynal Mustafayev in connection with the death of his son Mahir in Gobustan prison.
The interests of the applicant in the ECHR were represented by the lawyer Asabali Mustafayev.
The plaintiff asserted that the investigation into his son’s death was ineffective and he asked the ECtHR to find a violation of Article 2 (the right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It should be noted that Mahir Mustafayev, sentenced to life imprisonment, was burned alive in Gobustan prison on December 3, 2006. On the eve of his death, he informed about an imminent threat to his life.
According to the official version, Mahir Mustafayev suffered from epilepsy.
On December 3, 2006, when his cellmate Shakir Rzakhanov was seeing his mother,. Mustafayev suffered an epileptic fit. The cigarette, which he smoked, fell on the mattress and caught fire. But the door of the cell was not opened, because according to the order from 1999 (after the February riot in Gobustan) it is forbidden to open the doors of the cell chambers at night.
In the morning the patient was taken to the hospital, and on the way the car broke down. Finally, when M. Musayev was taken to the hospital with 75% of body burns, he died.
The court granted the complaint and ordered the Azerbaijani government to pay 20,000 euros in moral compensation and another 3,500 euros to reimburse the court expenses.
In addition, the parents were informed about the death of their son three days later. Now the government is obliged to conduct a new investigation after the decision of the ECtHR.
Mahir Mustafayev was born in 1967. In 1995 he was sentenced to life for premeditated homicide. He served time in the Gobustan prison.
