Anar Baghirov, the chair of Azerbaijan’s Bar Association, has criticised ‘some lawyers’ for publicly discussing their cases ‘in an unethical manner’. He warned that ‘more serious measures’ will be taken against those lawyers in the future.
Baghirov made the statement in an interview with nominally independent media outlet e-huquq.az on 18 July.
In the interview, he said that ‘some lawyers are bringing individual court cases to public discussion on social media, sometimes in an unethical manner’. Baghirov added that up until today, they had only urged the lawyers in regard, but promised ‘more serious measures’ would be taken in the future.
While Baghirov has not specified what exactly constitutes ‘unethical behaviour’, or which lawyers he was referring to, he announced that disciplinary measures were being planned against some of them.
‘I would not like to see the opinion among judges that lawyers manipulate the process. We are free professionals and must act responsibly to protect our professional freedom. Some lawyers express unfounded, subjective, and sometimes false opinions about the courts and other state institutions, which can be regarded as slander and insult’, he said.
Baghirov concluded his statement by warning that ‘serious control measures’ would be taken by the association should lawyers continue publicly discussing their cases.
‘We cannot agree with such a picture, and serious control measures will be taken in this direction. We must remember that each of us represents the entire Azerbaijani Bar. The activities, behaviour, and words of each lawyer affect the reputation of the bar as a whole.’
‘A wrong step by one lawyer can harm the entire Bar Association, as well as the attitude of society towards the bar’, Baghirov said.
Limiting lawyers’ freedom of expression
In their coverage of Baghirov’s remarks, independent news outlet Meydan TV cited former human rights lawyer Yalchin Imanov, who stated he was disbarred from the association in 2017 for openly criticising cases of torture in Azerbaijan’s legal system.
He was disbarred after being found guilty of slandering the Deputy Head of the Penitentiary Service, Ogtay Mammadov, whom he had accused of torturing one of his clients, Abbas Huseynov.
Huseynov was detained in 2015 during Azerbaijan’s crackdown on Shiites and the Muslim Unity Movement in Nardaran. Imanov has sent a series of complaints to the authorities regarding Huseynov’s alleged torture.
‘When we talk about punishment, we talk about the removal of a lawyer from professional activity and expulsion from the Bar Association. We see that in the country, lawyers who are mainly involved in the protection of human rights are persecuted and punished, this is done under different names’, Imanov told Meydan TV.
He also told Meydan TV that Azerbaijan’s adoption of a lawyers’ code of conduct in December 2017 significantly limited lawyers’ freedom of expression.
‘Lawyers will refrain from speaking out about a particular decision of a court or judge, regardless of whether he or she has made a fair decision or an illegal, unfounded verdict. This deprives lawyers of the opportunity to express critical opinions about the judicial system and judges’, he said, adding that he believed the association was guided by the ‘instructions of political authorities’.
According to its charter, the Bar Association of Azerbaijan is a non-governmental, independent, non-commercial, and self-managed organisation.
However, throughout its history, the association has disbarred a number of lawyers who were engaged in political activities or were critical of the authorities, including Khalid Baghirov, Irada Javadova, Asabali Mustafayev, Fakhraddin Mehdiyev, Nemat Karimli, and a number of others.
Aytan Farhadova
