6.  The applicant was born in 1978 and lives in Baku.
7.  The applicant is a well-known civil society activist and human rights defender. He is the Chairman and one of the co-founders of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (Seçkilərin Monitorinqi və Demokratiyanın Tədrisi Mərkəzi − “the Centre”), a non-governmental organisation specialising in the monitoring of elections.
8.  The applicant has actively taken part in election observation in Azerbaijan. He was also the Chairman and one of the co-founders of the Election Monitoring Centre (Seçkilərin Monitorinqi Mərkəzi), a non‑governmental organisation specialising in the monitoring of elections which was established on 19 February 2006. Following numerous attempts to acquire status as a legal entity under domestic law, the Election Monitoring Centre was finally registered by the Ministry of Justice on 1 February 2008. However, a few months later, in May 2008, the domestic courts ordered its dissolution at the request of the same ministry. The domestic proceedings relating to the registration and dissolution of the Election Monitoring Centre are the subject of an application pending before the Court (see application no. 64733/09).
9.  Following the dissolution of the Election Monitoring Centre, on 1 December 2008 the applicant and some of his colleagues founded the Centre (see paragraph 7 above), which has made several unsuccessful attempts to obtain State registration through applications to the Ministry of Justice. The domestic authorities’ refusal to register the Centre is the subject of another application pending before the Court (see application no. 70981/11).
10.  The applicant has been involved in the preparation of various reports relating to the organisation of elections and general human rights situation in Azerbaijan. In particular, he has been a speaker at Council of Europe events and has cooperated with UN institutions.
11.  The Centre conducted both short-term and long-term observations of the last presidential elections, held on 9 October 2013, in cooperation with its partner organisation, the Volunteers International Cooperation Public Union (Könüllülərin Beynəlxalq Əməkdaşlığı İctimai Birliyi – “the Public Union”) which has been registered as a legal entity by the Ministry of Justice. The Centre’s preliminary report concerning the results of the elections, published on 21 October 2013, concluded that the presidential elections had failed to comply with democratic standards.
12.  On 29 October 2013 the Prosecutor General’s Office instituted criminal proceedings in connection with alleged irregularities in the financial activities of the Centre and the Public Union.
13.  On 31 October 2013 a search was conducted at the Centre’s office, during the course of which all the organisation’s documents and electronic data storage devices were taken away by the prosecuting authorities.
14.  On 16 December 2013 the applicant was arrested and charged under Articles 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship), 213.1 (large-scale tax evasion) and 308.2 (abuse of power) of the Criminal Code. The description of the charges consisted of a single sentence which was one page long. In particular, the applicant was accused of receiving since May 2013, as co‑founder and Chairman of the Centre, an “organisation lacking State registration” − with the complicity of S.B. and E.M., through the Public Union, which was a registered NGO − a number of grants, in the amount of 215,287 Azerbaijani manats (AZN) from the United States of America’s National Democratic Institute resulting from certain grant agreements. He was accused of generating profit, “by paying money to himself and other people involved in the projects in the guise of salaries and service fees” despite the fact that the Centre did not have status as a legal entity. It was also stated that “as an official, he had failed to register these grants with the relevant executive authority, even though he had a professional obligation to do so”. Furthermore, he was accused of avoiding payment of taxes under Article 219 of the Tax Code in the amount of AZN 19,535, thus causing “significant damage to State interests protected by law, entailing grave consequences”.
15.  On the same day the prosecutor lodged a request with the Nasimi District Court seeking the applicant’s detention pending trial. The prosecutor justified his request by citing the gravity of the charges against the applicant, the fact that he did not live at the address where he was officially registered as a resident, and that there was a risk of his absconding from the investigation and obstructing the investigation’s functioning by influencing other participants in the criminal proceedings. In particular, the fact that the applicant had studied abroad, had frequently travelled to foreign countries, and was in constant contact with people living abroad constituted grounds for believing there was a risk of his absconding from the investigation.
16.  On 16 December 2013 the Nasimi District Court, relying on the official charges brought against the applicant and the prosecutor’s request, ordered the applicant’s detention for a period of three months. The court cited the gravity of the charges and the risk of re-offending and justified its decision as follows:
“After having examined the request with the material of the case file and having heard the submissions of the investigator and the prosecutor in favour of the request and the submissions of the accused and his representative against the request, the court considers that the request should be granted.
The accused has been charged under Article 308.2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan which constitutes a serious crime. The accused Anar Mammadli has also been charged with a criminal offence punishable by more than three years’ imprisonment, and there is a strong likelihood that he will re-offend.”
17.  On 18 December 2013 the applicant appealed against that decision, claiming that his detention was unlawful. He complained, in particular, that there was no “reasonable suspicion” that he had committed a criminal offence and that no proof in this respect had been produced, that he had not been involved in any entrepreneurial activity, and that it was not forbidden by law to receive grants. He also pointed out that he had registered all the grants received with the relevant authorities as required by the domestic law. The applicant also complained that there was no justification for the application of the preventive measure of detention pending trial. He had complied with the investigation’s requests all along and that the court had failed to justify his detention pending trial. Moreover, he was unable to obstruct the functioning of the investigation as all the documents relating to his activities had been in the possession of the investigation since the search of the Centre’s office on 31 October 2013.
18.  On 23 December 2013 the Baku Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding that the first-instance court’s decision was lawful. The appellate court was silent as to the applicant’s above-mentioned specific complaints and confined itself to noting that the applicant’s personal situation ‒ that he had a permanent place of residence, that he was married, that his family was financially dependent on him, and that he had a good reputation ‒ did not constitute grounds for lifting the detention pending trial.
19.  On 20 December 2013 the applicant lodged a request to be released on bail or placed under house arrest instead of in pre-trial detention, arguing that there was no “reasonable suspicion” that he had committed a criminal offence. He also claimed that there were no grounds justifying his continued detention. In particular, he had cooperated with the investigation all along and, although he often travelled abroad, he had never intended to abscond from the investigation. The applicant also pointed out that the domestic courts had failed to take into account his personal situation, namely that he had no criminal record, had a permanent place of residence, and that his family were financially dependent on him.
20.  On 25 December 2013 the Nasimi District Court dismissed the request, finding that the grounds justifying his detention, as specified in its decision of 16 December 2013, “had not ceased to exist”.
21.  On 26 December 2013 the applicant appealed against this decision, reiterating his previous complaints.
22.  On 30 December 2013 the Baku Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and upheld the Nasimi District Court’s decision of 25 December 2013, relying essentially on the same reasoning.
23.  Following a request dated 4 March 2014 from the Prosecutor General’s Office for an extension of the period of the applicant’s pre-trial detention, on 6 March 2014 the Nasimi District Court extended the applicant’s detention pending trial by three months, until 16 June 2014. The court justified its decision by citing the complexity of the case and the fact that a number of investigative steps still needed to be carried out, meaning that more time was needed to complete the investigation.
24.  On 7 March 2014 the applicant appealed against this decision. He claimed, in particular, that there was no “reasonable suspicion” that he had committed a criminal offence and that the first-instance court had failed to justify the extension of his pre-trial detention.
25.  On 14 March 2014 the Baku Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, upholding the Nasimi District Court’s decision of 6 March 2014. The appellate court provided the same reasoning as the first-instance court.
26.  On 19 March 2014 the Prosecutor General’s Office charged the applicant under Articles 179.3.2 (high-level embezzlement) and 313 (forgery in public office) of the Criminal Code, in addition to the original charges under Articles 192.2.2, 213.1 and 308.2 of the Criminal Code. The description of the allegations against him was slightly expanded, but essentially remained the same as that given on 16 December 2013 (see paragraph 14 above), with additional information alleging that the applicant had falsified various pieces of paperwork and minor contracts for services provided by a number of individuals (presumably in connection with various grant projects) and had not paid them in full as stipulated in the contracts.
27.  On 31 March 2014 the applicant again lodged a request with the court, asking the substitution of his detention pending trial with either house arrest or release on bail. In support of his request, he reiterated his previous arguments.
28.  On 1 April 2014 the Nasimi District Court dismissed the request. The court substantiated its decision by citing the gravity of the criminal charges against the applicant and the risk of his absconding from the investigation and obstructing its functioning.
29.  On 7 April 2014 the Baku Court of Appeal upheld the Nasimi District Court’s decision of 1 April 2014, providing the same reasoning as the first-instance court.
30.  In the meantime, on 5 April 2014 the applicant’s case was sent to the Baku Court of Serious Crimes for trial.
31.  On 26 May 2014 the Baku Court of Serious Crimes found the applicant guilty on all counts and sentenced him to five and a half years’ imprisonment.
32.  On 10 December 2014 the Baku Court of Appeal upheld this judgment. It was further upheld on 26 August 2015 by the Supreme Court.
33.  Following a presidentially decreed pardon on 17 March 2016, the applicant was released from serving the remainder of his sentence.
34.  The applicant’s arrest and institution of criminal proceedings against him attracted significant public and media interest both inside the country and internationally. Immediately after his arrest, a number of domestic NGOs, as well as international NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, condemned the authorities’ actions, calling on them to drop “all politically motivated charges against him”.
35.  On 17 December 2013, Janez Lenarčič, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, expressed his concern over the applicant’s arrest. He noted that “the reported arrest of Anar Mammadli is disturbing as it endangers citizen election observation, the role of which in ensuring the integrity of electoral processes has been recognised by all OSCE participating States, including the Republic of Azerbaijan”.
36.  On 20 December 2013 the Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs for Azerbaijan of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) expressed their concern about the arrest and pre-trial detention of the applicant. They stated that they had met him on several occasions during their fact-finding visits to Baku and at the Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg, pointing out that “this decision on pre-trial detention may raise suspicions about politically-motivated justice which we denounced in our recent report on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan”.
37.  On 9 May 2014 Maina Kiai, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and Margaret Sekaggya, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, condemned the arrest and criminal prosecution of the applicant. In particular, the UN Special Rapporteurs stated that they were seriously concerned that three human rights defenders, including the applicant, were being prosecuted in retaliation for their legitimate work documenting alleged widespread irregularities and human rights violations around the presidential elections of 9 October 2013. “All charges brought against them should be dropped and Mr. Mammadli should be released immediately”.
38.  Following the arrest of the applicant and other human rights activists, a number of politicians from the ruling political party made comments about recently arrested NGO activists and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, describing them as spies or as being a “fifth column” for foreign interests and traitors, without specifically naming the applicant. Some examples of such comments can be found in the Court’s judgment in Rasul Jafarov v. Azerbaijan (no. 69981/14, §§ 38-42, 17 March 2016).