issued by the Registrar of the Court

ECHR 070 (2025)

11.03.2025

Judgments of 11 March 2025

The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing two Chamber judgments¹which are

summarised below.

These judgments are available only in English.

Amirov v. Azerbaijan (application no. 55642/16)

The applicant, Faig Samidkhan oglu Amirov, is an Azerbaijani national who was born in 1973 and lives

in Baku. He was an opposition party activist, and worked as the financial director of the Azadliq

newspaper.

The case concerns the applicant’s arrest and detention on remand based on charges linked to his

allegedly belonging to the Gülenist movement in Azerbaijan. In particular, in August 2016 the police

had stopped him when he had been about to get into his car and, following a search, had found some

CD-ROMs and books about the life and ideas of Fethullah Gülen. Just under a year later, he was

convicted of tax evasion and incitement to ethnic, racial, social or religious hatred and hostility.

Relying on Article 5 §§ 1 and 3 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human

Rights, the applicant alleges that he was arrested and detained without a “reasonable suspicion” that

he had committed a criminal offence and that the national courts had failed to justify his pre-trial

detention. He also complains under Article 6 § 2 (presumption of innocence) that a press statement

by the law-enforcement authorities shortly after his arrest portrayed him as a criminal. He also brings

a complaint under Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) in conjunction with Article 5.

Violation of Article 5 § 1

Just satisfaction:

non-pecuniary damage: 7,500 euros (EUR)

costs and expenses: EUR 1,500

Aytaj Ahmadova v. Azerbaijan (no. 30551/18)

The applicant, Aytaj Soltan gizi Ahmadova, is an Azerbaijani national who was born in 1993 and lives

in Baku. She is a journalist.

She alleges that, in September 2015, when working with Meydan TV, an online news portal, she was

forced to go to the Organised Crime Department (OCD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the

Republic of Azerbaijan, where she was questioned about the news portal and its activities. On the

same day, employees of the OCD conducted a search of her flat allegedly without a warrant or court

order and seized her computer. From the following September onwards, some of her personal photos

and video-recordings at home with her family or at the beach were published on various Facebook

Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, Chamber judgments are not final. During the three-month period following a Chamber

judgment’s delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel

of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a

final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Under Article 28 of the Convention,

judgments delivered by a Committee are final.

Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.

Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution

accounts apparently belonging to fake individuals. The posts were accompanied by captions which

suggested that the applicant should be “hanged by her tongue”, “hanged naked in front of everyone”

and so on. The case concerns the alleged failure by the domestic authorities to examine her complaints

about the publication of her private photographs and videos on Facebook, accompanied by insults and

threats.

Relying on Articles 6 (right to a fair trial) and 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the

European Convention, the applicant complains that her right to respect for her private life was not

respected, and that the domestic authorities failed to examine her complaints in that respect. She also

complains under Article 10 of the Convention of a violation of her right to freedom of expression, and

under Article 13 that the failure of the State authorities to examine her complaints amounted to a

breach of her right to an effective remedy.

Violation of Article 8

Just satisfaction:

non-pecuniary damage: EUR 4,500

costs and expenses: EUR 1,000

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