Competent authority

General remarks:

The general legal framework for production orders (Article 18 Budapest Convention) is established by Article 143 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which, as read in conjunction with Article 135 of the CPC, enables authorities to request production of any type of stored computer data. However, article 143.2 of the CPC provides only for the possibility of voluntary production of data and as such does not have to be based on the court order. In the situation when the production of data is refused, the only enforceable alternative is search and seizure.

For production order under Article 143 of the Criminal Procedure Code – preliminary investigator, investigator, prosecutor or court shall have the right, at the request of parties to the criminal proceedings or on their own initiative, to request the presentation of documents and other items of significance to the prosecution.

In order for a search and seizure to be executed, it is necessary that a formal investigation is opened and, as a general rule, search and seizure can be conducted on the basis of a court order (Criminal Procedure Code, Article 243, p. 1); the motion to the court is launched by prosecutor in charge of the procedural aspects of the investigation on the basis of investigator's reasoned request (Article 177, p. 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code).

Basis in law

For production order, request of a party to the criminal proceedings or initiative of preliminary investigator, investigator, prosecutor or court to request the presentation of documents or items is the basis for launching the procedure (Article 143 of the Criminal Procedure Code).

Search orders can be issued when “available evidence or material discovered in a search operation give rise to a suspicion that a residential, service or industrial building or other place contains, or certain persons are in possession of, objects of potential significance to a case“ (Article 242 of the Criminal Procedure Code).

If different for subscriber information

Legislation of Azerbaijan does not distinguish between the different categories of data (subscriber, traffic and content) and thus enforces no functional differences in their treatment.

If different for traffic data

Legislation of Azerbaijan does not distinguish between the different categories of data (subscriber, traffic and content) and thus enforces no functional differences in their treatment.

Form

N/A

Competent authority

General remarks:

Azerbaijan does not implement expedited preservation of stored computer data (Article 16 Budapest Convention) as a standalone measure. In order to achieve the purpose of this article, production order (Article 143, p. 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code) is used, and search and seizure is an available alternative.

For production order under Article 143 of the Criminal Procedure Code – preliminary investigator, investigator, prosecutor or court shall have the right, at the request of parties to the criminal proceedings or on their own initiative, to request the presentation of documents and other items of significance to the prosecution.

In order for a search and seizure to be executed, it is necessary that a formal investigation is opened and, as a general rule, search and seizure can be conducted on the basis of a court order (Criminal Procedure Code, Article 243, p. 1); the motion to the court is launched by prosecutor in charge of the procedural aspects of the investigation on the basis of investigator's reasoned request (Article 177, p. 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code).

Basis in law

For production order, request of a party to the criminal proceedings or initiative of preliminary investigator, investigator, prosecutor or court to request the presentation of documents or items is the basis for launching the procedure (Article 143 of the Criminal Procedure Code).

Search orders can be issued when “available evidence or material discovered in a search operation give rise to a suspicion that a residential, service or industrial building or other place contains, or certain persons are in possession of, objects of potential significance to a case“ (Article 242 of the Criminal Procedure Code).

If different for subscriber information

Legislation of Azerbaijan does not distinguish between the different categories of data (subscriber, traffic and content) and thus enforces no functional differences in their treatment.

If different for traffic data

Legislation of Azerbaijan does not distinguish between the different categories of data (subscriber, traffic and content) and thus enforces no functional differences in their treatment.

Form

N/A

Definition of emergency situation

Emergency situation means a situation occurring in a certain area due to acts of war, accidents, natural or other disasters, which may cause or have caused loss of or damage to the life and health of people and environment, serious material losses and disturbance of everyday activities of people (Law of Azerbaijan on Civil Defence, Article 1).

Obligation to cooperate

In cases of preventing of grave crimes against individual or especially dangerous crime against the State, as well as escape from detention facilities, prevention of fire, explosions and encroachments against public order or posing potential risk of danger to public order, detective-search actions can be performed, by justifying their immediate application on these grounds, without a court order (Article 10, par. 2 of the Detective-Search Activity Act). Judicial overview in 48 hours is mandatory.

General obligation of the service providers to cooperate with the law enforcement under Article 39 of Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Telecommunications is a general rule that applies to all circumstances.

Exception

No specific exceptions are provided to the general rule.

Obligation of secrecy

Chapter XXIII, “Preservation of Confidentiality during Criminal Proceedings” of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Azerbaijan provides legal framework for protection of privacy and confidentiality in criminal proceedings. According to Article 199(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, “In  the  course  of  procedural  activities,  it  shall  be  prohibited  to  unnecessarily  collect,  disseminate  or  use  information relating to the private life of any person and other information of a personal nature which is intended to be kept secret. At the request of the investigator, prosecutor or court, the participants in investigative and court procedures shall be under an obligation not to disseminate such information and shall give a written undertaking to this effect.”

Non respect of the obligation of secrecy

Article 300 of Criminal Code of Azerbaijan stipulates that disclosure of information of inquiry body or preliminary investigation s punished by the penalty at a rate from five hundred up to one thousand of nominal financial unit, or corrective works for the term up to two years, or imprisonment for the term about six months.

Exception

No specific exceptions are provided.