The Secretary General of the Council of Europe today released this statement:
“The news from Azerbaijan today that Ilgar Mammadov, the head of the Council of Europe School of Political Studies in Baku, remains in prison following the decision of the Sheki Court of Appeal is deeply disturbing.
Azerbaijan’s courts have once again disrespected the country’s legal obligation to execute the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. Ilgar Mammadov has now been in prison for three years despite the Strasbourg Court’s judgment that his prosecution was politically motivated and was aimed to punish him for having criticized the Government. Depriving a person of his or her liberty on the basis of a flawed judgment is an attack on the human rights system we have established in Europe.
I call on President Ilham Alyiev as guarantor of the Constitution to ensure that Azerbaijan honours its commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights”.