The applicants in this court case are the non-governmental organization and its founders Anar Mammadli, Bashir Suleymanli and Suliddin Asgarov. In 2009, the applicants applied to the Ministry of Justice for the state registration of Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center. However, the ministry returned the documents without making a decision on registration, on the grounds that they were missing. Subsequently, the applicants complained to the court about the illegality of the ministry’s action. They claimed that their right to association was interfered with. In parallel, the applicants eliminated the deficiencies claimed by the ministry and applied for re-registration. The court rejected the petitioners’ appeal, and the appellate court upheld that decision. During the review of the cassation appeal of the applicants, the Supreme Court annulled the decisions of the lower courts and returned the case to the appellate instance for reconsideration, but did not change the decision of that instance. The Supreme Court once again upheld the decision of the appellate instance.
The applicants claimed before the ECtHR that there had been an interference with their right to freedom of association.
The ECtHR ruled that there had been an interference with the applicants’ right to association (Article 11) and that the applicants’ right to file an individual complaint (Article 34) had not been respected. According to the decision, the government has to pay 4,500 euros for moral damages to the applicants, 200 euros for translation costs, and 500 euros to Intigam Aliyev, the legal representative of the applicants.
EMDS was re-established on December 1, 2008, on the basis of the deregistered Election Monitoring Center (EMC). It should be noted that on May 14, 2008, the Khatai District Court canceled the registration of EMC based on the groundless claim of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan. After this event, the founders and members of EMC founded SMDT. Previously, n 2021, the European Court of Human Rights recognized the violation of the right to association by considering the complaint regarding the cancellation of the registration of EMC.
