Azerbaijani courts must examine the evidence supporting a criminal allegation and consider less restrictive measures before ordering a suspect’s pretrial detention, the Constitutional Court has ruled.
The court’s Plenum set out the legal position in response to a request from the Prosecutor General’s Office, interpreting the Criminal Procedure Code in light of constitutional guarantees of liberty and judicial protection, according to Vesti Baku.
What Judges Must Assess
When reviewing a detention request, a court must determine whether there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the person committed a crime, whether the suspicion is supported by sufficient initial evidence and whether the statutory grounds for detention are present.
Judges must also separately assess whether the objectives of the investigation can be secured through a less restrictive preventive measure rather than detention.
The Constitutional Court said a finding that the evidence is insufficient to justify detention does not amount to an advance determination of the accused person’s guilt or innocence.
The ruling took effect upon publication. It is final and cannot be revoked or amended by another state body.
Source: Vesti Baku. The relevant procedural framework is available in Azerbaijan’s official Criminal Procedure Code.