Ambassador Steven Sestanovich
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Embassy in Baku
Fax: (99412) 98 37 55

Dear Ambassador Sestanovich,

We welcome your visit on May 22 to Azerbaijan as an important opportunity to raise concerns relating to Azerbaijan's troubled judicial system. I am providing here summary information on instances of harassment of the independent bar by the Ministry of Justice in the hope that you will raise these issues in your meetings with Azerbaijani officials.

As you may know, the International League for Human Rights has been carefully monitoring and reporting on unwarranted restrictions the Ministry of Justice and other government bodies have increasingly imposed on lawyers in Azerbaijan. We have involved U.S. Ambassador Stanley Escudero in this matter and have expressed our concerns directly to Sudaba Gasanova, the Minister of Justice, Azer Tagiev, the Chairman of the Collegium of Lawyers, and Xanlar Gadzhiev, the Chairman of the Constitutional Court.

As you may know, last spring the government of Azerbaijan lifted the existing monopoly on the legal profession, which had until then only permitted members of the Collegium of Lawyers to practice law. The Collegium is essentially a state agency of the bar which maintains control over lawyers and handles all payments for legal services. Through a series of decrees in 1998, the government made it legal for individuals to practice law on the basis of licenses granted by the Ministry of Justice. Some ninety individuals, including several members of the Collegium, applied for and received licenses, thus increasing by almost one-fifth the number of lawyers in Azerbaijan. Some of these lawyers turned these new freedoms into successful law practices, irritating the Collegium, which lost the total control it once held over lawyers. The new class of attorneys also gave an independent legal voice to those, including many opposition figures, whom the government sought to repress. In apparent retaliation, the Minister of Justice issued a letter on December 1, 1998, arbitrarily barring lawyers practicing on the basis of a license from participating in criminal cases. It retained the privilege for Collegium members, however, thus establishing an incentive for these lawyers to work only through the Collegium rather than independently.

Aslan Ismailov, a Collegium member who also obtained a license from the Ministry of Justice, spearheaded a petition, signed by seventy licensed lawyers, to protest and render invalid Ms. Gasanova's December letter. Since then, the Ministry of Justice and by proxy through the Collegium of Lawyers has waged an aggressive campaign against Mr. Ismailov, particularly following a trip to the U.S. for ten days in February in which Mr. Ismailov publicized his efforts to combat the Ministry's discriminatory and restrictive actions against the legal profession. On March 18, the Presidium (Board) of the Collegium voted to disbar Mr. Ismailov. In April, the Collegium reportedly requested that the Ministry of Justice render Mr. Ismailov's license invalid. Such a step, in conjunction with his expulsion from the Collegium would have deprived him of his profession and silenced a crucial and credible voice for combatting government abuse. Fortunately, in an April 23 meeting with Minister Gasanova, Amb. Escudero received her assurance that she would not revoke Mr. Ismailov's license entirely, enabling him to take civil cases. She insists, however, that he continue to be barred from criminal practice.

We respectfully ask you to raise the following concerns during your meetings with government officials:

1. Urge that Mr. Ismailov be reinstated to the Collegium, thus allowing him to resume his work as a defense attorney in criminal cases.

2. Raise concerns about the undue restrictions the Minister of Justice's letter of December 1998 imposes on licensed lawyers and urge that it be overturned. Urge the enforcement of an unpublished Supreme Court ruling on this letter.

3. Urge that a new law on the legal profession (advokatura) be published and made available to independent experts for comments. The law should not be pushed through parliament if it cannot fully protect the independent bar.

The Ministry of Justice has arbitrarily punished individual lawyers and unduly restricted the legal profession as a whole. Other branches of government have turned a blind eye to this repression. As we saw repeatedly during meetings with three Azerbaijani lawyers sponsored by the League to come to the U.S. in February, their concerns over the state of their profession are shared by the prominent American judges, lawyers and government officials with whom they met. Allowing lawyers to practice freely and independent of the state is an important step toward increasing the potential for addressing human rights abuses. It is also an important component toward ensuring that U.S. companies investing in Azerbaijan can defend themselves from the arbitrary and sometimes unlawful actions of the government. At present, all U.S. companies operating in Baku rely heavily on local attorneys to navigate the complex legal system.

Thank you in advance for your attention to these concerns. We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Executive Director