Last week, Azerbaijani queer rights activist Javid Nabiyev posted a video on Facebook, in which he revealed that a series of police raids disproportionately aimed at LGBTQ+ people had been carried out in Baku, the country’s capital, over a series of days. Read the full article
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The government of Azerbaijan is waging a war on independent journalism within the country.
“This has been the case for years now,” says Arzu Geybulla, Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom correspondent for Azerbaijan. “Most of the journalists, editors, bloggers who are behind bars are there on bogus charges of hooliganism, tax evasion, slander, abuse of power, illegal entrepreneurship.”
The government has recently taken two of its cases internationally for the first time. This may change the way international reporters critical of Azerbaijan’s government cover the country in their own media.
Thorbjørn Jagland, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, has called on the authorities in the country “to respect the spirit of the country’s cooperation with the Council of Europe and to fully abide by its commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights in order to avoid yet another case of unjust deprivation of liberty which has no place in a democratic society”.
Here are some of the new cases and developments in the past month where Azerbaijani officials target the media domestically and abroad.
10 September, 2017 ‒ The regional reporter for opposition Azadliq newspaper Ziya Asadli was given a three-year sentence by a Bilasuvar region court after being charged with hooliganism.
In April 2017 Asadli reported that he was approached and pressured by police after reporting on local protests. After publishing these pieces, authorities accused Asadli of engaging in hooliganism at a local tea house.
During the incident at the tea house, he notified the police and learned that there was a complaint against him. He is denying these accusations, explaining that it was he who was attacked.
Azadliq Radio is the Azerbaijani service for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
5 September, 2017 ‒ French journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard are being sued for defamation by the government of Azerbaijan. The two journalists are facing these charges after describing Azerbaijan as a dictatorship.
“This is the first time our government has engaged in an action of this kind and while it is hard to make any concrete projections, I suspect this may set the tone for future international reporters critical of the authorities and the language they use,” Geybulla said. “Clearly the authorities in Baku are very sensitive to the kind of language used describing them in international coverage.
A French court will make a ruling on 7 November 2017.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_custom_heading text=”Media freedom is under threat worldwide. Journalists are threatened, jailed and even killed simply for doing their job.” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fcampaigns%2Fpress-regulation%2F|||”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship monitors media freedom in Azerbaijan and 41 other European area nations.
As of 21/9/2017, there were 70 verified violations of press freedom associated with Azerbaijan in the Mapping Media Freedom database.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship campaigns against laws that stifle journalists’ work. We also publish an award-winning magazine featuring work by and about censored journalists. Support our work today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
11 September, 2017 ‒ Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin was released by authorities following a pardon for Azerbaijan President Aliyev.
Lapshin is a Moscow-based writer of a Russian-language travel blog and was wanted in Azerbaijan both for visiting the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and for criticising Azerbaijani policies.
On 15 December 2016, Lapshin was detained in Minsk on an extradition request from Azerbaijan.
On 20 January 2017, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus ruled to extradite Lapshin. One week later, his lawyer made an appeal to the Higher Court of Belarus. If extradited, the criminal case filed in Azerbaijan, if convicted, can lead to a prison sentence from five to eight years.
According to the Azadliq Radio, Lapshin attempted to commit suicide a day before his pardon fearing the extension of his extradition case. The pardoning means that his three-year sentence was commuted by the authorities.
Lapshin holds Russian, Ukrainian and Israeli citizenship, and will instead be extradited back to Israel.
11 September, 2017 ‒ A court has freed Mehman Aliyev, the director of independent news agency Turan, from pretrial detention and has now been placed under a conditional release.
On 24 August 2017 Aliyev was detained by Azerbaijani authorities on tax evasion charges. It was reported by Azadliq Radio that the next day he was sentenced to three months in pretrial detention. It was also reported that Aliyev was questioned for eight hours the day before his detention.
Aliyev has also been charged with carrying out “illegal entrepreneurship activities” which carries with it at least seven years sentence. He now faces three charges in total.
“The Council of Europe is working closely with the authorities in Azerbaijan on reforms intended to soften the punishment system and avoid unnecessarily harsh sentences and detentions whenever possible – for instance, in cases when the person who is detained does not threaten the security of the state or its citizens,” announced Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland the day after the arrest. “These changes are a part of a presidential initiative that Azerbaijani officials recently reported to the Committee of Ministers as being on the point of adoption.”
Aliyev’s news agency Turan announced that it will be suspending its work temporarily. The tax probe launched against the agency resulted in the closing of its bank accounts, which has led to its forced temporary closure. On 15 September 2017 the official tax evasion charges were dropped, but the company’s bank accounts remain frozen.
The conditional release states that Aliyev is responsible for checking in regularly to the police and notifying them if he leaves the city of Baku.
In an interview with Azadliq Radio, Aliyev’s lawyer Fuad Agayev stated that there has been no changes to the charges brought against his client.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1506001163566-c20aafba-9c85-8″ taxonomies=”6564″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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Update: On 25 August Aliyev was sentenced to pre-trial detention. A new charge of illegal entrepreneurship was filed against him, which carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
On 24 August Mehman Aliyev, director of independent news agency Turan, was detained and charged with tax evasion and abusing the authorities as part of a wider tax probe against the media outlet. On 23 August Aliyev was called into the state tax department where he was interrogated for eight hours.
“The arrest of Mehman Aliyev and the investigation into Turan have clear political motives. The Azerbaijani government has been exploiting law enforcement agencies to silence criticism and go after independent media,” Index’s head of advocacy Melody Patry said. “We call for the authorities to immediately release Mehman Aliyev and drop all charges against him. The judicial harassment against Turan news agency and its journalists must stop.”
The Azerbaijani authorities have been engaged in efforts to silence Turan news agency for months. On 10 August a tax probe was launched against Turan where the agency is being accused of under-declaring profits since 2014 and faces a fine of over 37,000 manats (€18,000). A week before on 16 August, the state tax department raided the outlet offices and confiscated documents. In April, authorities ruled to block access to Turan website which the courts upheld in May.
Turan has released a statement announcing the indefinite suspension of their work from 1 September as a direct result of blocks on their bank accounts as well as the detention of their director.
According to The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, 15 journalists are currently in prison in Azerbaijan.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1503673643226-8608085a-6298-5″ taxonomies=”7145″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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Afgan Mukhtarli. Credit: Meydan TV
Media outlets in Azerbaijan routinely deal with torture, assault, raids, imprisonment and endless intimidation, as verified reports submitted to Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project show.
“The years-long crackdown on the independent press by the regime of Ilham Aliyev has accelerated in recent months. This is clearly one of the world’s worst environments for press freedom and, consequently, for the public’s right to information,” Hannah Machlin, project manager for Mapping Media Freedom, said.
International media freedom rankings confirm the country’s stagnating record where autocratic repression is consistent, if not the functioning political system itself. Although authorities continue to claim that the majority of the country’s 147 political prisoners are criminals, religious radicals and tax evaders, the international community of rights watchdogs view it differently. A new wave of attacks against media freedom advocates, journalists and activists within the past two months alone illustrate a place where the primacy of Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, and his word overrides the primacy of the words of others, particularly his critics.
One such critic, Afgan Mukhtarli, an investigative journalist, disappeared on 29 May while on his way to his home in Tbilisi. Mukhtarli reappeared the next day across the border in Azerbaijan and was accused of illegal border crossing, smuggling (police allegedly found €12,000 on him) and resisting police. He was immediately sentenced to three months in pre-trial detention.
Speaking to Mapping Media Freedom, Mukhtarli’s wife Leyla Mustafayeva said she was relieved when she heard news of his arrest because after reporting her husband missing the day before, she had assumed he was dead. However, that is the only relief Mustafayeva has had since her husband’s kidnapping:
“I have no hope for the investigations. They have been stalled. They don’t want to investigate. Police allegedly cannot find any footage. The only video that was made available to our lawyer was shown two weeks after Mukhtarli’s disappearance and it’s just of my husband getting on the bus that usually takes him home.”
Mukhtarli’s case is unique in that his is the first cross-border operation alleged to be carried out in tandem with the Georgian government. While this has yet to be confirmed by officials in Georgia, Azerbaijani lawmaker and a member of the Parliament Human Rights Committee Elman Nasirov claimed Mukhtarli’s kidnapping was “the most successful operation carried out in recent years.” Nasirov also accused Mukhtarli of being a member of a far larger anti-Azerbaijan network.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”black” align=”align_left”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Mapping Media Freedom: Azerbaijan” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fmappingmediafreedom.org%2Fplus%2F%3Fs%3DAzerbaijan|||”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship monitors press freedom in Azerbaijan and 41 other European area countries.
As of 14/07/2017, there were 60 verified reports of violations connected to Azerbaijan in the Mapping Media Freedom database.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”94222″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://mappingmediafreedom.org/#/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator color=”black” align=”align_left”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Muktharli was assigned to carry out subversive activities in Azerbaijan,” Nasirov asserted, claiming that as a preventive mechanism, Azerbaijani special forces made necessary arrangements with Georgian special forces. “The are principles and rules for this. Based on security principles, this how it was made possible to bring Mukhtarli to Azerbaijan,” said Nasirov in an interview with Azadlig Radio, the Azerbaijani service for Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty.
Police have questioned political activists, members of opposition parties, and journalists as part of the investigation. Sevinc Vagifqizi, a freelance reporter, was detained while waiting for news outside the state border services where Mukhtarli was being held. Speaking to journalists after her brief detention, Vagifqizi said that police allegedly thought she was going to disturb peace outside the building. Other journalists who have been questioned in the case of Mukhtarli are investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who is facing a travel ban despite her release from jail, and, more recently, Aytac Ahmadova.
The circumstances of Mukhtalri’s arrest were notably suspicious. Outside of his abduction, Mukhtarli’s lawyer was also quick to report on the injuries Mukhtarli suffered, including a broken nose, multiple bruises and possibly a broken rib. Mukhtarli is not the only journalist who appears to have been subjected to alleged police brutality. Nijat Amiraslanov, a member of the NIDA civic movement and an independent journalist based in Gazakh, reportedly lost his front teeth while serving his 30-day administrative detention. In his statement, however, Amiraslanov said his teeth fell out on their own, and that there was no ill-treatment during his detention. After Amiraslanov’s teeth fell out, the journalist refused an appeal filed by his lawyer. Amiraslanov was released on 21 June after completing the detention period.
In another show of force, police raided the office of independent online television channel Kanal 13 on 3 June, confiscating computers and other documents. Police had already detained the channel’s manager Aziz Orucov (Garashoglu) earlier in May. Orucov was sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention on the grounds of allegedly resisting police. Additional charges of illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of power were brought against Orucov on the day of his release. He was sentenced to four months in pre-trial detention.
While these men await trial, another journalist and editor-in-chief of the news website Journalistic Research Center (jam.az) Fikrat Faramazoglu was sentenced to seven years in jail on 14 June. Faramazoglu was found guilty on charges of extortion. In his defence statement, the journalist said it was his reporting on a chain of brothels that were protected by the law-enforcement agencies that incited his arrest. Faramazoglu was also banned from working as a journalist for two years following the completion of his prison term.
A classic case of revolving door policy
Rather than continue to release its political prisoners, the Azerbaijani government continues to arrest more reporters and further tightens controls on the media sector.
“There are some ten journalists and bloggers currently in prison [in Azerbaijan]. Based on these new arrests, Azerbaijan is trying to return to the list of countries where journalists critical of the government end up in jail on bogus charges,” said Muzaffar Suleymanov from the Civil Rights Defenders, a Stockholm-based rights watchdog in an interview with Mapping Media Freedom. Furthermore, a recent decision by a Baku court to block access to independent and opposition news websites broadcasting from abroad is a matter of more concern, added Suleymanov.
Levan Asatiani from Amnesty International echoed these sentiments adding that, as an international community of watchdogs, they have not seen any improvements, only a further deterioration in the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.
“While there have been releases, there have been new arrests or travel bans introduced against former prisoners of conscience,” Asatiani said. There are also legal boundaries in place that prevent the work of remaining independent civil society organisations in Azerbaijan.
It is no longer enough to make statements and express concern says Suleymanov. The Council of Europe should hold its members responsible for violating human rights while the EU must set benchmarks in accordance with the human rights situation as it negotiates a new agreement with Azerbaijan, noted Asatiani.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1500022088088-43842239-2fe8-0″ taxonomies=”7145″][/vc_column][/vc_row]