Azerbaijani advocates claim regular loss of letters addressed to ECtHR

Advocates of activists and oppositionists have claimed repeated loss by the "Azerpost" of the correspondence sent to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). An official of the state-owned "Azerpost" denied the suggestions of deliberate nature of the above practice.

Advocate Elchin Sadygov said that on November 19, he sent a letter in the Bairam Mamedov's case to the ECtHR via registered mail. On the same day, he sent a letter to the Strasbourg Court concerning a complaint filed on behalf of his another client. "On November 23, with the help of online tracking, I learned that the second letter came to the Strasbourg Court, while the complaint in the Bairam Mamedov's case failed to reach its destination," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Elchin Sadygov.

Elchin Sadygov believes that the letter concerning the complaint in the Bairam Mamedov's case was lost not accidentally. "This is not the first case when the 'Azerpost' loses letters sent to the ECtHR. It should be noted that this usually happens with the correspondence relating to activists' cases. Thus, the complaint in the case of Shirin Abbasov, a journalist of the 'Meydan TV', was lost several times," says Elchin Sadygov.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Mubariz Djalilov, the deputy chairman of the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Azerpost", that no one can talk of deliberate loss or delay of letters.

"Let Elchin Sadygov send a request to our website, and we'll investigate the case and respond to his request," said Mubariz Djalilov.

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