25 Apr 12 | Azerbaijan Statements, Europe and Central Asia
ADVOCACY LETTER
Dear President Aliyev,
Re: The brutal attack on Idrak Abbasov and assault of four other journalists on 18 April 2012
The Azerbaijani authorities must launch an immediate, independent and transparent investigation into the brutal attack on investigative journalist Idrak Abbasov and the assault of journalist Gunay Musayeva on Wednesday 18 April 2012 in a village on the outskirts of Baku. The subsequent assaults on three other journalists, Esmira Javadova, Elnur Mammadov and Qalib Hasanov, who tried to report on the attacks against their colleagues, should also be part of this investigation.
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25 Jan 12 | Azerbaijan News, Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
Azerbaijani newspapers Yeni Musavat and Azadliq were fined 2000 manats (1,634 GBP) this week, they had been accused of damaging businessman Anar Mammadovov’s honour and business image. Mammadov, the son of Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov, appealed to the court citing articles two articles — one headlined “Kamaladdin Heydarov’s Bear Eaten” and the other “Sheikh drives Anar Mammadov out of Dubai” — published in July and September 2010 respectively.
19 Sep 11 | Azerbaijan News, Events
Date: Tuesday 20 Oct
Time: 6-7.30pm
Venue: Committee Room 6, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
To attend please RSVP to: [email protected]
By kind invitation of Paul Flynn MP, the Henry Jackson Society is pleased to invite you to a discussion with John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director of Amnesty International, Murad Gassanly, co-founder and Acting Director of Azerbaijan Democratic Association, UK, and Michael Harris, Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship. John, Murad and Michael all have extensive experience in this area and will be addressing the key questions now facing Azerbaijan. Can the situation in Azerbaijan change? Is there hope for a democratic transformation and economic justice? What can Britain (Azerbaijan’s chief foreign investor) and the wider international community do to facilitate progress?”
John Dalhuisen is currently a Deputy Programme Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International. He has previously worked as a researcher on discrimination in Europe and also on the Caucasus.
Murad Gassanly is a British-Azerbaijani political activist, co-founder and Acting Director of Azerbaijan Democratic Association, UK. In the 2005 parliamentary elections he served as a senior political advisor to the Azerbaijani opposition coalition “Azadliq”.
Michael Harris is a human rights lobbyist. He is Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship and lobbies for the Libel Reform Campaign, a campaign to liberalise England’s defamation laws. He has worked behind the scenes on investigative journalism into political corruption.
06 Sep 11 | Azerbaijan News, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
A journalist claims he was kidnapped and expelled from Azerbaijan. Yafez Hasanov, an Azerbaijani correspondent from Radio Azadliq, part of Radio Free Europe, was in Naxcivan investigating the death of airport technician Turaz Zeynalov, when he was abducted by three men. The suspects — who were driving a vehicle similar to those used by government security officials — told him that if he returned to Naxcivan, it would “cost him.” The men branded Zeynalov, who died after being summoned to the National Security Ministry, a “traitor.” Hasanov was taken to the Iranian border and told to return to Baku via Iran, where RFE is considered an illegal organisation.
