Baku court grants lawsuit of journalist Elchin Mamed to MIA

The ban to leave Azerbaijan, imposed on the journalist and rights defender Elchin Mamed, was unlawful; his rights were also violated after his detention in May 2015, a court in Baku has judged.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Elchin Mamed, the Chairman of the NGO "Legal Enlightenment of Sumgait Youth" and the editor-in-chief of the on-line edition "Yukselish Namine" (In the Name of Renaissance), was detained on May 29, 2015, upon his arrival from Brussels. According to his story, after his detention, he was questioned at the Chief Department for Combating Organized Crime (known as the GUBOP) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), and released. On August 12, 2015, he was not let from the country to Georgia to participate in the "Herrsching" International Youth Seminar. The journalist appealed the police's actions at court.

According to Elchin Mamed, the trial on his lawsuit at the Baku Administrative-Economic Court lasted for eight months.

"My lawsuit had to do with the fact that my freedom of movement was illegally restricted. I wasn't presented with any official decision on the reasons for my detention on May 29 last year at the airport, and for my 12-hour-long detention at the GUBOP," Elchin Mamed told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Today, the above court has upheld his lawsuit against the GUBOP. "The court found unlawful my detention at the GUBOP for 12 hours of May 29, 2015, and the restriction of my freedom of travel," Mr Mamed said.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.