12 ANNAGI HAJIBEYLI v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT A. The parties’ submissions 1. The Government 57. The Government noted that the case files relating to the proceedings before the Court, including the applicant’s, had been taken from Mr Aliyev’s office on 9 August 2014 and were in the prosecution authorities’ possession for a period of seventy-six days, until 25 October 2014 when they were returned to Mr Aliyev’s lawyer. 58. The Government further noted that in the applicant’s case by 9 August 2014 the parties had already submitted all the observations, comments, proposals and claims requested by the Court. Accordingly, during the period when the applicant’s case file was in the prosecution authorities’ possession no correspondence was taking place between the Court and the parties, and the applicant and his lawyer were awaiting the Court’s decision. For these reasons, the Government considered that there had been no hindrance by the State of the effective exercise of the applicant’s right of application. 2. The applicant 59. The applicant noted that the contents of the case file had no connection with any of the formal criminal charges brought against Mr Aliyev. He further argued that Mr Aliyev’s arrest was “part of the [recent] serious crackdown on civil society in Azerbaijan, including the lawyers and human rights [activists]”. 60. The applicant submitted that during the searches of 8 and 9 August 2014 the investigators had indiscriminately seized all the documents in Mr Aliyev’s office, including his case file. Contrary to the requirements of the domestic rules of criminal procedure, the investigators in charge of the search did not make an inventory of the seized documents in the search record. The applicant noted that on 25 October 2014 some of the documents, including his case file, had been returned to Mr Aliyev’s representative, Mr Javadov. However, according to the applicant, some case files relating to applications by other applicants had not been returned. 3. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the third party 61. In their submissions, the ICJ summarised international standards on non-interference with the work of lawyers, enshrined in the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the Draft Universal Declaration on the Independence of Justice (the Singhvi Declaration) and other documents which recognise the role of lawyers as essential agents in the administration of justice. The ICJ noted that, despite such recognition under international law, lawyers in many jurisdictions incur serious risks when carrying out their professional functions.