Azerbaijan’s Parliament is discussing new amendments to allow certain urgent searches and seizures without a court order, the pro-government media outlet Qafqazinfo has reported.
According to Qafqazinfo, the new legislation discussed on Thursday would establish that in cases which ‘cannot be postponed’, an investigator may conduct a search or seizure without a court order.
‘The amendments aim to eliminate the possibility of deleting and concealing certain information’, wrote the publication, adding that with the assistance of a specialist in this field, investigators will be allowed to seize electronics, such as laptops and cellphones, as well as any ‘media containing data’ or ‘electronic data’ itself.
Human rights lawyer Yalchin Imanov told OC Media that these amendments will expand the list of the grounds for conducting a search and seizure by decision of an investigator in cases where deferment is not possible.
However, it remains unclear which cases this amendment could be used in — Imanov said that the wording of ‘certain urgent cases’ is listed in Azerbaijan’s criminal code.
‘These cases includes a variety of crimes, such as against state authority and human lives, or a person who has escaped from a place of imprisonment, detention, or arrest who poses a danger to people, the existence of a real threat to the life or health of a person at their place of residence’, Imanov said
These amendments, if adopted, could lead to abuses in practice, he added.
‘It is expected that such decisions will be made based on the investigator’s discretion, especially in the context of urgent matters, such as the creation of false evidence in high-profile criminal cases in the public spotlight, or to build a charge based on existing evidence’, Imanov suggested.
There are also concerns the amendments could impact the cases against independent media outlets, given that some staff members are currently imprisoned. On the parliamentary website, the committee only mentioned the agenda of the bills under discussion, but did not provide detailed information on their progress.
Aytan Farhadova
