Summary: | As a country with a criminal justice system that has historically put too much emphasis on the use of custodial preventive measures, Azerbaijan has suffered from the consequences of the overuse of pre-trial detention. The management of detention centres has become a financial and logistical burden for the government, and the excessive use of pre-trial detention as a preventive measure for accused persons has also had deleterious effects on detainees and communities. Through the analysis of the secondary data, this article attempts to understand the causes of the overuse of pre-trial custody in the context where a variety of alternative options is available. The paper argues that a deviation from the guidelines on the part of the judiciary, procurators and investigators, corrupt practices in the pre-trial phase and sufficient degree of judicial independence have been the key reasons behind the over-reliance on pre-trial detention.
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