Since the grounds that may lead to disbarment from the Azerbaijani Bar Association (hereafter “ABA), the disciplinary violations committed by lawyer Elchin Sadigov and 2 other advocates while performing their professional activities were found, and taking into account the relevant opinions of the Lawyers' Disciplinary Commission about them, according to point 8 of Article 22 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Lawyers and legal practice", on July 6, 2023 the Presidium of the ABA took relevant decisions to suspend their activities until the court decision on that issue enters into legal force.

It must be emphasized that activities of the Lawyers' Disciplinary Commission of the ABA are arranged following local legislation and international practice, including the "Charter of core principles of the European legal profession" and "Code of Conduct for European Lawyers". Thus, after the elections and changes in the Presidium in 2017, the Regulation of the "Code of Conduct for Advocates" was developed based on the code of conduct of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). Later, considering the additional proposals of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the CCBE, appropriate changes were made to this Regulation at the General Meeting (conference) of Lawyers.

Since the issue of disbarment from the membership of the ABA is resolved based on a court decision, as well as considering the business reputation of the lawyers, the information about the identity of the advocates whose activities have been suspended and claimed to the court shall not be and is not disclosed by the ABA.

Since the information about lawyer Elchin Sadigov has already been made public by him, the ABA notes the following concerning this issue:

Disciplinary proceedings against Elchin Sadigov were initiated based on the relevant application of journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, and the Lawyers' Disciplinary Commission conducted the investigation.

Evaluating the public statement of lawyer Elchin Sadigov, as well as all the collected materials, the Lawyers' Disciplinary Commission concluded that the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Lawyers and legal practice", the Regulation of the "Code of Lawyers' Conduct", and the relevant articles of the Charter of the ABA were violated by him.

Thus, Elchin Sadigov, while carrying out his professional activities related to the protection of the rights of Rasim Mammadov, the former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of "Baku Steel Company", publicly shared the following content regarding the cases mentioned in the application: "... After that day, Avaz did not stop and began to speak insults against Mammadov and his family members every day. We saw that Avaz did not stop; even though Avaz did not mention my name in his speech on August 26, 2022, he was also involved in the defence of Mammadov. We had to talk to Avaz. Instead, he told me a fantastic amount. Then we agreed. He took the money. Only 4 days later, he spoke nonsense again. I never expected that Avaz would do this to me, that is, he would take the money and talk again, make a carousel."; "... On that day, I returned the Mammadovs' money from my own money so there would be no dissatisfaction. And then he told me to tell him I gave him documents, not money. He said the same."

With this, according to his confession, lawyer Elchin Sadigov resorted to illegal mediation and demanded that public speeches about his client be stopped in exchange for informal and illicit payments made to the journalist contrary to the requirements of the Law "On Lawyers and legal practice", the Regulation of the "Code of Lawyers' Conduct".

Thus, according to Article 15 of the Law "On Lawyers and legal practice", advocates have the right to use in their activities all methods and tools in their activities that are not prohibited by the legislation and not contradicting to lawyer ethics. However, as can be seen, lawyer Elchin Sadigov, contrary to the legislation, used illegal methods and means contrary to lawyers' ethics in his activities. Nevertheless, according to paragraph 2.10 of the Regulations, lawyers in connection with the implementation of professional activities violating the law are prohibited from performing actions (inaction) aimed at obtaining material and intangible benefits, privileges, or benefits.

It should be noted that the decision of the Presidium to disbar lawyer Elchin Sadigov is not directly related to other cases in the proceedings as a lawyer but to the serious violation of the law on this issue.

At the same time, we would like to inform you that a criminal case is pending against lawyer Elchin Sadigov regarding the mentioned cases. However, the issues investigated by the ABA have nothing to do with whether the deed is a crime and whether the act is given a legal evaluation from this point of view. Because the disciplinary proceedings carried out in the ABA are aimed at evaluating the action from the ethical framework, which in turn means that ethical responsibility does not have the power to affect criminal or other responsibilities. Therefore, the conduct of a criminal case by some institution against an advocate against whom disciplinary proceedings are being conducted, even if the said criminal case is related to the actions in the disciplinary case under investigation, is not an obstacle to the investigation of disciplinary proceedings, giving an opinion and making an appropriate decision on it by ABA and those mentioned in no case constitute a case that excludes the involvement of a lawyer in professional responsibility.

It is regrettable that lawyer Elchin Sadigov, while he is aware of the features mentioned earlier, gave completely wrong, biased, and unfounded opinions to the society and the mass media about the allegedly groundless and illegal conduct of the disciplinary proceedings, which are the activities of the ABA regulated by law. It is believed that Elchin Sadigov did this to defend himself and form his image as a "victim of persecution" in society.

In addition, articles were published in some mass media, referring to the statement of lawyer Elchin Sadigov that Eynulla Fatullayev acted as a person who was not interested in the matter, and therefore the ABA should refuse to investigate that appeal. Concerning these, we would like to inform you that there is a relevant decision of the Presidium to initiate disciplinary proceedings against advocate, Elchin Sadigov and send it to the Lawyers' Disciplinary Commission for investigation. On the other hand, every natural person and legal entity has the right to appeal to the Presidium regarding cases of violations committed by advocates in their professional activity and non-professional behaviour, even if they are not directly related to them. In the experience of the ABA, there have been cases of examining such appeals and making relevant decisions.

Apart from these, lawyer Elchin Sadigov has been duly informed many times to participate in the Disciplinary Commission and Presidium meetings. However, he did not attend any meetings. We would like to emphasize that the text of the notification regarding the relevant meeting of the Disciplinary Commission was published by Elchin Sadigov on the social network. This again confirms that he is adequately informed and aware of the meetings.

Furthermore, we would like to inform that by the said decision of the ABA Presidium, lawyer E.A. Sadigov was allowed to complete all the cases pending in the instances mentioned in the contracts he signed on the provision of legal assistance until 06.07.2023.

The Azerbaijani Bar Association states once again that according to the Law "On Lawyers and legal practice", the termination of the lawyer’s membership in the ABA is within the jurisdiction of the domestic court. For this reason, every interested person should refrain from spreading unspecified, untrue, and distorted news when sharing information about the issue.