Published on 31 March 2025
 
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 29798/19
Afgan MUKHTARLI
against Azerbaijan
lodged on 30 April 2019
communicated on 12 March 2025
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the criminal conviction of the applicant, a journalist, who worked in Azerbaijan for several media outlets. On 12 January 2018 the applicant was convicted of illegal border crossing, smuggling, and violently resisting a law-enforcement official, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. By a final judgment of 18 September 2018 the Supreme Court upheld the applicant’s conviction.
On 17 March 2020 the applicant’s sentence of imprisonment was commuted to a fine and he was released from prison.
The applicant complains under Article 6 of the Convention that the criminal proceedings against him were unfair and that the domestic courts’ judgments in his case were not duly reasoned.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
Did the applicant have a fair hearing in the determination of the criminal charges against him, in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, was the applicant’s right to a reasoned judgment based on a proper examination of the submissions and evidence respected in the present case (see, for example, Huseyn and Others v. Azerbaijan, nos. 35485/05 and 3 others, §§ 198-203, 26 July 2011; Ilgar Mammadov v. Azerbaijan (no. 2), no. 919/15, §§ 205-10, 16 November 2017; and Zayidov v. Azerbaijan (no. 3), no. 60824/08, §§ 87-94, 19 January 2023)?
 
In support of their submissions, the parties are requested to provide copies of the relevant documentary evidence, including copies of transcripts of the court hearings, the applicant’s requests and the courts’ decisions concerning those requests.