CEDH · CASELAW;COMMUNICATEDCASES;ENG — 8 avril 2024

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .s379BC09C { margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s10950C61 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:14.2pt; text-align:justify } .s5E1364CA { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:center; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:14pt } .s339D85E6 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; text-align:center; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .s665E407E { margin-top:66pt; margin-bottom:14pt; text-align:center; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .sB95D6361 { font-family:Arial; color:#c00000 } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } Published on 29 April 2024   FIRST SECTION Application no. 50750/21 Zamin Oktay oglu SALAYEV against Azerbaijan lodged on 22 September 2021 communicated on 8 April 2024 SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE The application concerns criminal proceedings conducted against the applicant, the head of an opposition party’s regional branch. The case was instituted in procedure for private prosecution brought by H.A., a police officer, in connection with allegedly defamatory statements that the applicant had made in several posts and interviews on YouTube. In these posts and interviews he accused H.A. of raping a twenty-one-year-old woman. According to the applicant, his statements were based on information which had already circulated and been discussed in social media and on earlier public statements made by the woman’s parents. By a judgment of 20 April 2020, the Salyan District Court convicted the applicant under Articles 147.2 (slander by accusation of having committed a serious or especially serious criminal offence) and 148 (insult) of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to two years’ and three months’ imprisonment. The domestic courts held that the applicant had slandered H.A. by accusing him of having committed a criminal offence without providing evidence and used defamatory and insulting language in his public statements. After a series of appeals, the conviction and sentence were upheld by the Supreme Court’s final decision of 30 March 2021. The applicant complains under Article 10 of the Convention that the domestic courts’ judgments violated his right to freedom of expression.   QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES Has there been an interference with the applicant’s freedom of expression, within the meaning of Article   10 §   1 of the Convention? If so, was the interference prescribed by law and necessary in terms of Article   10 §   2 in pursuit of a legitimate aim? Were the sanctions imposed on the applicant proportionate to the aims pursued (see Mahmudov and Agazade v.   Azerbaijan , no.   35877/04, §   51, 18 December 2008, and Grebneva and Alisimchik v.   Russia , no.   8918/05, § 65, 22   November 2016)?   The parties are requested to submit a translation into English or French of the excerpts from the applicant’s videos, which led to his criminal conviction.