On Tuesday 5 December, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe formalised the infringement proceedings against Azerbaijan which it initiated on 25 October of this year (see EUROPE 11892).
These proceedings – completely unprecedented – concern the case of 'Ilgar Mammadov', a member of the political opposition who was arrested in Baku in February 2013 and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment following a deeply flawed trial process.
In May 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) concluded that there was no justification for keeping Mammadov in custody and called for his immediate release (see EUROPE 11107).
The fact that this judgment has not been executed more than three years after it was definitively returned justified the triggering of article 46 §4 of the European Human Rights Convention, launching a procedure allowing the Committee of Ministers to call upon the ECHR to decide whether the failure to execute a decision of the Court constitutes a further violation of the Convention.
At this stage, the President of the ECHR must decide on what happens next and whether or not to arrange a hearing of the Grand Chamber on the matter. If this Chamber concludes that the Convention has been breached afresh, the case will be referred back to the Committee of Ministers, who will decide on the next steps. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)