ATAKISHI v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT 3 disagreement with one of the applicant’s supporters and under the influence of emotion in the heat of the moment. In the following days, H.S. wrote similar letters to various electoral commissions and courts, retracting his accusations. According to the applicant, he also attempted to attend the Court of Appeal hearing concerning his disqualification (see below). 15. It appears that, on 29 October 2005, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Shamakhi Region commenced a criminal inquiry into allegations that on 28 October 2005 the applicant’s brother had resisted a police officer who was trying to restore order at a meeting of M.I. with voters, which had allegedly been disrupted by the applicant’s supporters. No information is available about the outcome of this inquiry. B. Judicial proceedings concerning the applicant’s disqualification 16. The Court of Appeal examined the ConEC’s request at a hearing held on 31 October 2005. According to the applicant, although the hearing was officially scheduled to commence at 11 a.m., it actually took place at around 5 p.m. He had not received a written summons and was informed of the hearing orally only at around 2 p.m. on the same day, about three hours before the hearing. It was the first time he had been officially informed of the ConEC’s request of 29 October 2005 and that the Court of Appeal was considering the issue of his disqualification. 17. During the hearing, the applicant denied all the accusations against him, arguing that they had not been duly proved and, in any event, could not be a basis for cancelling his registration as a candidate. He noted that H.S. had retracted his accusations against him and had admitted that they had been false. He further noted that he had not been summoned to the ConEC meeting of 29 October and that the ConEC’s decision had not been made available to him. Lastly, he denied the accusation that his supporters had interfered with M.I.’s meeting with voters. 18. Having examined the written evidence submitted by the ConEC, which consisted mainly of copies of the above-mentioned written complaints by several voters, M.I. and local YAP members, the Court of Appeal considered that that evidence was sufficient to find that the applicant had breached the requirements of Articles 88.1, 88.2 and 88.4 of the Electoral Code, and it therefore cancelled his registration as a candidate. 19. The applicant appealed. Among other things, he complained that he had not been informed of the ConEC meeting of 29 October 2005 and that neither the ConEC decision nor any case materials had been officially made available to him prior to the Court of Appeal’s hearing. He further noted that it was in any case unclear from the relevant documents (which had been made available to him subsequently) whether the said ConEC meeting had taken place on 25 or 29 October, because the documents were contradictory and “falsified”. He claimed that all the alleged evidence against him had