A A. v. Azerbaijan

The complainant is Mr. A. A.²**, an Azeri national sentenced to death on 24 August 1994 by the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan. On 10 February 1998, all death sentences handed down in Azerbaijan, including the complainant’s, were commuted to life imprisonment, following the abolition of the death penalty by Parliament. The complainant claims to be a victim of violation by Azerbaijan of his rights under articles 1, 2, 12 and 13, of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (the Convention). He is represented by counsel. Azerbaijan became a State party to the Convention on 16 August 1996 (date of accession), and made the declaration under article 22 on 4 February 2002.

2. ** Initials changed at request of the complainant. ↩

The Committee has equally noted that the complainant filed an application in the European Court of Human Rights, regarding events which occurred after 10 February 1998, which, according to him, can be clearly distinguished from the issues submitted to the Committee. This application was declared inadmissible on 29 April 2005. The European Court held, inter alia, that the complainant’s allegations of mistreatment on death row, which are identical to the claims in the present communication, were inadmissible¹⁰.

10. The Committee has noted that the European Court, acting through a Committee of three judges, declared the application inadmissible on two grounds: partly on a) non-exhaustion of domestic remedies (articles 3, 8, 14, and 34, of the European Convention), and b) with regard to the applicant’s remaining complaints, on the ground that the information before the Court does not reveal any violation of the applicant’s rights and freedoms under the Convention. ↩

In this context, the Committee recalls that it shall not consider any communications from an individual under article 22, paragraph 5 (a), of the Convention, unless it has ascertained that the same matter has not been, and is not being, examined under another procedure of international investigation or settlement; the Committee is satisfied that examination by the European court of Human Rights constitutes an examination by such a procedure.

The Committee considers that a communication has been, and is being examined by another procedure of international investigation or settlement if the examination by the procedure relates/related to the “same matter” within the meaning of article 22, paragraph 5 (a), that must be understood as relating to the same parties, the same facts, and the same substantive rights. It observes that Application No. 34132/03 was submitted to the European Court by the same complainant, was based on the same facts, and related, at least in part, to the same substantive rights as those invoked in the present communication.

Having concluded that the “same matter” has been the object of the complainant’s Application before the European Court and it was examined and declared inadmissible, the Committee considers that the requirements of article 22, para. 5 (a), have not been met in the present case. In the circumstances, the Committee decides that it is not necessary to examine the other two grounds of inadmissibility, namely on ratione temporis and non exhaustion of domestic remedies.

The Committee against Torture consequently decides: (a) That the communication is inadmissible;