SAMADBAYLI AND OTHERS v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT 3 no. 42345/11) ‒ on 29 November 2010 the Constitutional Court confirmed the countrywide election results, including the election results in the applicants’ constituencies, as final (ibid., § 30). B. Court proceedings and seizure of the applicants’ case files 11. At the material time Mr Intigam Aliyev was representing not only the applicants in the present cases, but a total of twenty-seven other applicants in cases concerning the 2010 parliamentary elections and a number of applicants in other cases before the Court. 12. On 8 August 2014 criminal proceedings were instituted against Mr I. Aliyev, these being the subject of a separate application brought by him before the Court (application no. 68762/14). On 8 and 9 August 2014 the investigation authorities seized a large number of documents from Mr I. Aliyev’s office, including all the case files relating to the proceedings pending before the Court which were in Mr Aliyev’s possession, comprising over 100 applications in total. The files relating to the present applications were also seized in their entirety. The facts relating to the seizure and the relevant proceedings are described in more detail in Annagi Hajibeyli v. Azerbaijan (no. 2204/11, §§ 21-28, 22 October 2015). 13. On 25 October 2014 the investigation authorities returned a number of the case files concerning the applications lodged before the Court, including the files relating to the present applications, to Mr Aliyev’s lawyer. II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC DOCUMENTS LAW AND INTERNATIONAL 14. The relevant domestic law and international documents concerning inter alia the system of electoral commissions and procedures for examination of electoral disputes, as well as observations made during the 2010 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, are summarised in Gahramanli and Others (cited above, §§ 33-50). THE LAW I. JOINDER OF THE APPLICATIONS 15. The Court considers that, in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications should be joined, given their similar factual and legal background.