Human Rights Center Protests Imprisonment of Citizen of Azerbaijan and His Possible Extradition to Azeribaijan

Human Rights Center has been defending interests of citizen of Republic of Azerbaijan Javid Nasirov (J. Nasirov hereinafter) since the end of December of 2012. J. Nasirov has been serving extradition imprisonment. He was detained by patrol police officials on September 15th of 2012 in Tbilisi International Airport as he was searched by Interpol.

J. Nasirov is a businessman. He states that the law-enforcement of Azerbaijani have been persecuting him after he refused to participate in the corrupted agreements.

Human Rights Center protests long-term imprisonment of J. Nasirov and requests the Court to apply bail as a compulsory measure against him. Center requests the Court to pay attention to the fact that the issue of extradition is groundlessly protracted by the Office of Prosecutor. Besides, Office of Prosecutor has obtained all evidence and release of J. Nasirov will not hinder the interests of investigation. Also, there is no danger that he will hide from investigation since he is requesting status of refugee from state of Georgia and has a fiancée who is citizen of Georgia.

The ultimate goal of Human Rights Center is not to allow J. Nasirov’s extradition to Azerbaijan.

For more detailed information we would like to share important details of case of Javid Nasirov to public:

Since the Main Office of Prosecutor had not had obtained original documents of request of extradition from Republic of Azerbaijan, Office of Prosecutor addressed the Court with the request to apply three-month extradition imprisonment (verdict of September 17th of 2012).

Office of Prosecutor received original document of request of extradition on October 15th of 2012; however, it should be noted that except for the original documents of request of extradition, Office of Prosecutor has not shown interest to the documentation confirming charges till November 7th of 2012: this caused protraction of issue of extradition of J. Nasirov. Due to this reason, with the motive of lack of documentation, Office of Prosecutor addressed City Court on December 11st of 2012 with the request to prolong the term of imprisonment. Office of Prosecutor obtained documentation from Republic of Azerbaijan fully on December 12th. However, it did not start to discuss the issue of extradition even after receiving this documentation and at the trial held on March 12th of 2013, as a reason of not hearing the request the notification of defense side received on December 20th regarding the address of J. Nasirov to Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation on December 14th of 2012 was named. on February 15th of 2013 the side notified the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation in written form regarding refusal to grant humanitarian status to J. Nasirov; However, Office of Prosecutor still did not start to hear request regarding J. Nasirov’s extradition and on March 12th 2013 it requested to prolong his imprisonment term by 3 months and the Criminal Chamber of Tbilisi City Court satisfied this request. As a result, extradition imprisonment was prolonged by three more months and in sum Nasirov will have to serve 9-month imprisonment term, particularly till June 15th of 2013. 

Human Rights Center appealed against March 12th decision of Court to Appellate Court and requested to change extradition imprisonment by non-imprisonment compulsory measure in a form of bail of 5 000 GEL.

Prosecution had 6 months to hear and make decision on request of Main Office of Prosecutor of Azerbaijan submitted to Main Office of Prosecutor of Georgia on October 15th of 2012 regarding the extradition of J. Nasirov. Prosecution intentionally protracted this time. Main Office of Prosecutor used this term maliciously and did not make decision on extradition of J. Nasirov.

Intentional or imprudent inaction of Office of Prosecutor to make decision on extradition of J. Nasirov violates his right to freedom. Besides, Office of Prosecution could not substantiate necessity of usage of extradition imprisonment in regards with J. Nasirov.

Procedural legislation lists the grounds in which cases it is possible to apply compulsory measure including the grounded presumption that the defendant will hide from investigation; will not attend the trial; will destroy important case evidence; will commit new crime.

According to the recommendation of Council of Ministers of Council of Europe, imprisonment should be used as an exceptional measure. Besides, it must not be of obligatory nature and must not have the goals of punishment. 

According to explanation of ECHR, there is no more danger of misleading justice (which can be one of the justifying circumstances of imprisonment) when there is aggregate of evidence in the case.  This kind of approach indicates on the constant necessity to re-examine grounds of imprisonment since the danger at the initial stage of imprisonment which necessitated imprisonment might no longer exist later.

Despite the abovementioned, the Court made decision in which it did not consider the position of defense side regarding the following circumstances:

1. Main Office of Prosecution groundlessly protracted making decision on the issue of extradition in regards with J. Nasirov;

2. J. Nasirov has a house and fiancée in Tbilisi and his freedom would not hinder the Office of Proseuctor to make decision, moreover, considering the fact that the evidence has been collected in the case and the Office of Prosecutor will make decision in nearest future.

As for the final aspect, particularly, as the prosecutor stated at the trial, the evidence has been collected (already for December 12th of 2012) and the decision regarding J. Nasirov will be presented in nearest future. He directly stated the decision which had not been officialy made for that time – “we will make decision to extradite J. Nasirov and if the defense side wishes, it can appeal against it through the means of court.”

Ultimately, it seems like Georgia is ready to extradite person in Azerbaijan who claims he is a victim and addressed Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation with the request not to extradite him. Human Rights Center raises alarm on such decision of Office of Prosecutor according to which the person will be extradicted in the state where he allegedly was under constant pressure and threat.

Nino Andriashvili,

Head of Legal Department of Human Rights Center