OCCRP
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Written by Kelly Bloss
Feb.23, 2021
Azerbaijan lost three cases in front of the European Court of Human
Rights last week and will have to pay 282,850 euro (US$344,122) to the
plaintiffs for violating their rights.
In one case, the government was ordered to pay 234,000 euro ($284,690)
to 18 people whose gardens have been years ago unlawfully sold to
President Ilham Aliyev’s then relatives.
In 2007, a year after Aliyev’s eldest daughter Leyla married pop-star
Emin Agalarov, a presidential order dismantled the so-called Garden
Exploitation Department which leased plots of land to residents.
The city of Baku then handed over 30 hectares of seafront land the 18
plaintiffs had leased in the Nardaran neighborhood of Baku to the
municipality, disregarding the contracts the 18 had signed years
before with the dismantled institution.
The municipality then sold the land to the Crocus Group, a company
owned by Emin’s father, Azerbaijani-born Russian billionaire Araz
Agalarov, who was the president of the company, while Emin was the
vice-president. Emin and Leyla divorced in 2015 but Emin’s company
meanwhile built a luxurious resort called Sea Breeze at the disputed
land.
The 18 residents took their complaints to the court and after
years-long procedures in Azerbaijan, the case ended up in 2009 at the
Strasbourg-based Court of Human Rights. Judges ruled on Thursday that
the rights of the plaintiffs were violated and ordered the government
to pay each of the 18 residents 10,000 euros ($12,166) in material
damages and 3,000 euro ($3,649) in moral damages.
Lawyer Sevinj Aliyeva wrote on her Facebook page that she was
approached by a representative of the Crocus Group who offered to
reward her if she drops the case.
“It is true that the sum of the compensation is not so big compared to
what Crocus Group earned with Sea Breeze, but for poor families,
especially during this pandemic, the compensation will be welcome,”
she wrote.
The other case Azerbaijan lost to two political prisoners, Mammad
Azizov and Shahin Novruzlu. The two were members of NIDA, a
non-governmental organization, and were arrested in 2013 on drugs,
weapons and rioting charges after a series of demonstrations against
deaths of soldiers in the Azerbaijani army in non-combat situations.
Azizov was in 2014 sentenced to seven years and six months and
Novruzlu to six years in prison, but both were released the same year
following a presidential pardon.
The court in Strasbourg ruled that the government has to pay 43,500
euros ($52,913) to them as compensation for illegal pre-trial
detention.
The third case concerns a man who has been illegally detained after
the pre-trial detention the court ordered ended. Ildar Rustamovich
Fayzov is to get 5,350 euros ($6,505) from the government, according
to the ruling.