Azerbaijan, Baku, 20 May / corr. Trend K. Zarbaliyeva/ There have been debates in the Azerbaijani society for a long time on the modifications of the legal expertise and establishment of the private expert institutions.
The independent lawyers believe that it is important and timely to establish the independent expert institutions because of the lawlessness dominating in this sphere, which is under government's monopoly.
According to the lawyer Intigam Aliyev, the objectivity of expert's opinion causes doubts as expert institutions are under governments' monopoly. As investigation bodies and courts are not independent, there are instruments of pressure on the expert's decision, he said. "Those forces that take advantage of the partiality of a court and investigation, have opportunities to influence the opinion of the experts," Aliyev said.
According to Aliyev, though there are discussions over the establishment of private expert institutions, it is impossible to adopt concrete decisions as it is against the interests those who still have a control over the court and investigation.
According to lawyer, Gurban Mammadov, the legal expertise depends on the individual officials.
According to Mammadov, the lawyers and citizens do not have opportunities to get an objective opinion of an expert. "The law offers citizens to choose any expert they wish. But in practice, the citizens are deprived of this opportunity as the experts are controlled by a unified body," the lawyer said.
The legal expertise who is under government's monopoly deals with legalizing illegal actions of a court and investigation bodies, Mammadov said.
According to Mammadov, the establishment of private expert institutions will enable citizens to get an alternative opinion of experts.
According to Intigam Aliyev, the establishment of such institutions will help to prevent violations in the investigation process and legal proceedings and will protect the rights of the citizens.
Fuad Javadov, head of the Legal Expertise Center of the Justice Ministry and Doctor of Law said to Trend that Azerbaijan does not have a need to establish private expert institutions. "The independent experts do not have opportunities to conduct investigations as the Center and to provide scientifically proved opinion," Javadov said.
The alternative expert opinion in Azerbaijan is provided only in assessing real estate. According to Javadov, in this case, the independent experts rely only on the evidence introduced to them by their market mediators without employing any methods and scientific approach.
According to Javadov, an expert should be professional and the institution providing expert's opinion should have facilities meeting standards and it should rely only on the scientific approaches.
According to Javadov, the expert is responsible for the opinion. Unlike the experts of the private institutions, the government institutions have a moral responsibility as well. If investigation bodies and court will submit evidence on violations by the expert, he/she will be punished in line with a law.
"If private expert institutions will be opened, it will create a lot of problems. The establishment of private expert bodies is not a way out," Javadov said.
The lawyer Aliyev does not consider the arguments by the head of the Center possess any grounds. According to Aliyev, the work of the private expert institutions has been tested on the international level and it has yielded good results.
The lawyer stressed the problems in legality and objectivity of the experts' opinion, and added that the arguments by Javadov can only concern the state expert institutions.
"The opinions provided by the state expert institutions do not meet professional standards and are not objective. The technical basis of the Center does not meet the international standards," Aliyev said.
According to Aliyev, if appropriate legislation is created, independent expert institutions with a strong material and technical basis can be set up.
The Legal Expertise Center of the Justice Ministry has been functioning since 2006. The Center conducts more than 40 types of expertise except medico-legal and medico-psychiatric.
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