issued by the Registrar of the Court
ECHR 048 (2025)
18.02.2025
Judgments of 18 February 2025
The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing three Chamber judgments1 which
are summarised below.
The judgments summarised below are available only in English.
Just Satisfaction
Alasgarov and Others v. Azerbaijan (application no. 32088/11)
The applicants are 21 Azerbaijani nationals.
The case concerns a dispute over plots of land that had been allocated to the applicants by the
Agrarian Reform Commission in Absheron for agricultural use. The Absheron District Mehdiabad
Municipality later notified some of the applicants that their plots would be reallocated so that the
State could make use of the land for construction purposes.
On 10 November 2022 the Court found a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of
property) to the European Convention on Human Rights, but reserved the question of just
satisfaction.
In its judgment today the Court held that the respondent State should remove all obstacles
restricting the applicants’ free access to their plots of land and should pay them compensation in
respect of the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage suffered. Details of the amounts awarded are
appended to the judgment.
Objective Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and Others v. Azerbaijan
(no. 257/12)
The applicants are Objective Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (Obyektiv Televiziya və
Radio Yayım Şirkəti), a company based in Azerbaijan, and three Azerbaijani nationals, Mehman
Yadulla oglu Aliyev, Emin Rafik oglu Huseynov and Rasul Agahasan oglu Jafarov, who were born in
1957, 1979 and 1984 respectively and live in Baku.
All four were involved in bids for radio station licences: Mr Aliyev and Mr Huseynov as owners and
staff members of the applicant company; and Mr Jafarov in a separate bid by Alternativ Radio. The
bid was ultimately won by a company called Golden Prince LLC for a radio station named Free News
Radio.
Relying on Article 10 (freedom of expression), of the European Convention, the applicants complain
of the refusal to grant them a broadcasting licence.
Violation of Article 10
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Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, Chamber judgments are not final. During the three-month period following a Chamber
judgment’s delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a
panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and
deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Under Article 28 of the
Convention, judgments delivered by a Committee are final.
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.
Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution
Just satisfaction:
To the applicant company and the second and third applicants jointly:
non-pecuniary damage: 4,500 euros (EUR)
costs and expenses: EUR 2,000
Romanchenko and Kharazishvili v. Georgia (nos. 33067/22 and 37832/22)
The applicants, Ana Romanchenko and Nika Kharazishvili, are Georgian nationals who were born in
1989 and 1990 respectively and live in Tbilisi.
The case concerns the interception and recording of the applicants’ telephone communications
within the framework of criminal proceedings for allegedly planning to sell 400,000 packs of
cigarettes without excise stamps.
Ms Romanchenko complains under Article 6 (right to a fair trial), and both applicants complain under
Article 8 of the Convention that the interception and recording of their telephone communications
violated their right to respect for their private life and correspondence.
Violation of Article 8 in respect of both applicants
Just satisfaction:
non-pecuniary damage: EUR 1,500 to each applicant
costs and expenses: EUR 73 to the applicants jointly
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