Azernews.Az

BAKU – The government of Azerbaijan paid out compensations totaling 337,000 euros in 2010 under 12 rulings issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), says a Council of Europe body’s annual report assessing enforcement of the court’s decisions.

As of December 31, 2010, the CoE Committee of Ministers received 31 applications from Azerbaijan.

The CoE has also called on Azerbajiani authorities to comply with the ECtHR’s decision on journalist Eynulla Fatullayev’s release.

Fatullayev, the editor-in-chief of two local newspapers, was sentenced in 2007 to eight-and-a-half years in prison on charges of inciting ethnic and religious hatred, threatening terror, and tax evasion. The ECtHR in April 2010 ruled that Fatullayev had been wrongfully sentenced and demanded his immediate release. It also ordered the Azerbaijani government to pay the journalist 25,000 euros in damages and another 2,822 euros to cover expenses.

The CoE Committee of Ministers reiterated that relevant Azerbaijani bodies are to explore all means available to release the journalist and replace his jail sentence with alternate punishment if appropriate.

Worldwide, governments paid a total of 64 million euros to plaintiffs under ECtHR’s rulings last year.