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Mehman Huseynov is a journalist and human rights defender who documents corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan, consistently ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom.
He was sentenced to two years in prison in March 2017 — after describing abuses he had suffered at a police station.
As independent journalist, vlogger, and editor-in-chief of the political magazine SANCAQ, Huseynov has put his life in danger to document largely sensitive issues. His work circulated widely on the internet, informing citizens about the real estate and business empires of the country’s government officials, and scrutinising the decisions of president Ilham Aliyev.
Huseynov was first arrested in 2012 for his role in the Sing for Democracy protests against the profligate spending on the 2012 Eurovision contest in Baku, and since then has been regularly interrogated by authorities, who imposed a travel ban on him and confiscated his documents – preventing access to services like health-care and education. In 2013, Huseynov was awarded one of the Fritt Ord Foundation’s and the ZEIT Foundation’s press prizes for his courageous journalism.
Azerbaijan is an authoritarian country in which power is heavily concentrated in the hands of president Ilham Aliyev, who has ruled the country since 2003. There is little room for independent expression or activism, and critical journalists, civil society leaders and human rights advocates face harassment, violence and detention.
On 9 January 2017 plain-clothes officers attacked Huseynov, blindfolded and gagged him with towels, forced a bag over his head and took him to the Nasimi district police station, where police used an electroshock weapon on his groin and punched him.
On 17 October 2018, Baku Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal against the denial of parole.
Before his release from prison in March 2019, Huseynov remained defiant, saying: “I am not here only for myself; I am here so that your children are not in my place tomorrow. If you uphold the judgement against me, you have no guarantees that you and your children will not be in my place tomorrow.”[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”104691″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2019/01/awards-2019/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1552914689259-de127fad-fb34-7″ taxonomies=”26925″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship welcomes reports that new criminal charges against Azerbaijani journalist and human rights defender Mehman Huseynov have been dropped.
Mehman Huseynov is short-listed for the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2019 in the journalism category “for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression”.
However, he remains in prison on a previous conviction, widely seen as politically motivated. International organisations continue to call for his release.
Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship said “Index is pleased that the new charges against Mehman Huseynov have reportedly been dropped, but he should not remain in prison on the earlier, unjustified charges. We urge Azerbaijan to free Mehman Huseynov immediately.”[/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:1548234806594-889c5f6f-f3c7-0″ taxonomies=”4742, 5113″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, who had investigated government corruption, fled the country in fear in 2014 and travelled to Georgia. On 29 May 2017 Mukhtarli vanished while in Tbilisi and reappeared the following day back in Azerbaijan. He was charged with illegally crossing a state border, smuggling and resisting a representative of the government using violence.
“Afgan Mukhtarli’s case is a shocking example of how journalists are treated in Azerbaijan,” Joy Hyvarinen, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship, said. “The European Parliament has urged the European Union to ensure that Azerbaijan frees its political prisoners before negotiations on a new partnership deal between the EU and Azerbaijan are concluded and specifically mentioned Afgan Mukhtarli. It is very important that the EU takes a strong line on this in the talks.”
The European Parliament passed a resolution on 15 June 2017 condemning Mukhtarli’s abduction, urging Georgian authorities to investigate and expressing concern at Azerbaijan targeting critics living in exile. Additionally, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe general rapporteur on media freedom and the safety of journalists expressed concern on 20 June 2017.
After more than a year in detention, Mukhtarli was sentenced on 12 January 2018 to six years in prison. This ruling was upheld on appeal on 18 September 2018. Mukhtarli told his lawyer that unidentified men wearing Georgian criminal police uniforms were present when he was pushed into a car, beaten and driven to the Azerbaijani border. The sum of €10,000 was planted on Mukhtarli when he was apprehended. Georgian authorities launched an investigation but have not made progress and refuse to recognise Mukhtarli as a victim of a crime.
Mukhtarli’s sentence and treatment while in detention have been condemned by the US Department of State, Amnesty International, OSCE media freedom representative Desir and the European External Action Service, who call for his release.
At the time of his abduction, Mukhtarli had been investigating business links between Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and former Georgian prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. He accused the Georgian authorities of being complicit, stating that “without the permission of the prime minister, they would not have been able to get me across the border”.[/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:1548087608735-4abd0122-06f9-7″ taxonomies=”7145″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”104696″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]We 39 human rights organisations from 13 Human Rights Houses call for urgent action from the international community to ensure the life, health, and rights of imprisoned Azerbaijani photojournalist, video blogger, and human rights defender Mehman Huseynov. We are deeply concerned about his critical condition and his imprisonment, and the psychological pressure and new criminal charges pursued against him. We urge the international community to raise this case as a priority in communications with the Azerbaijani authorities and show public support for Mehman Huseynov.
Mehman Huseynov began a hunger strike on 26 December 2018 in protest against facing further criminal charges – charges that we and many others, including the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, consider to not be credible. Since 2012, Mehman Huseynov has been subject to a travel ban and without identification and official documentation, preventing him from accessing public services such as healthcare and education. He has also faced harassment and pressure, but actions against him have escalated dramatically in the past two years, beginning with reports that he was abducted and tortured in police custody on 9 January 2017.
Following this abduction, Mehman Huseynov reported that he was tortured – which is consistent with the findings of an examination by an independent team of medical doctors, sent from Front Line Defenders and the Georgian Centre of Psychological and Medical Rehabilitation for Torture. He was sentenced to two years in prison for defamation on 3 March 2017 for stating that he was tortured. We regret that he was imprisoned when he should have received support and his allegations of abduction and torture investigated. Still in prison, he now faces new criminal charges for alleged violence against a member of prison staff. We are particularly concerned about the credibility of this allegation, in context of previous arbitrary actions against Mehman Huseynov – and indications that since August 2018 he has been under psychological pressure in prison and the basis laid for further charges against him.
The actions taken against Mehman Huseynov appear to be politically motivated and strongly linked to his legitimate work raising awareness of human rights and issues related to corruption. These actions have led directly to his current severe condition, as with seemingly no access to justice and arbitrary restriction of his freedom, Mehman Huseynov saw no other option than to go on hunger strike on 26 December 2018. Further contributing to his condition, we note that while Mehman Huseynov was allowed to attend his late Mother’s funeral in August 2018, he was prevented from visiting her while she was alive and ill in hospital – on accusations that he has not participated in “corrective work”, namely the prison’s “social life”, “cultural events”, and “maintenance work.” These accusations also surfaced during Mehman Huseynov’s hearing on application for parole in August 2018. During the hearing, Mehman Huseynov told that he had been summoned by the prison administration and made to understand that he could be punished for explaining rights to other prisoners. He explained that he decided to stay apart from others for this reason. We worry that the decision by authorities to prevent Mehman Huseynov from visiting his dying mother has taken its toll on him.
Years of escalating pressure by authorities has forced an ambitious young man wanting to improve Azerbaijani society to now be in a critical condition in prison. This is a situation that has gone too far, for both Mehman Huseynov and for Azerbaijan.
With urgency, we call on the international community to raise the following with Azerbaijani authorities in support of Mehman Huseynov.
We also ask members of the international community to:
The following member organisations from the network Human Rights Houses call for support from the international to ensure the life, health, and rights of Mehman Huseynov.
Human Rights House Azerbaijan (signed by these member NGOs):
Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House, Vilnius (signed by these member NGOs):
Human Rights House Belgrade (signed by these member NGOs):
Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv (signed by these member NGOs):
Human Rights House Crimea (signed by these member NGOs):
Human Rights House Oslo (signed by these member NGOs):
Human Rights House Tbilisi (signed by these member NGOs):
Human Rights House Voronezh (signed by these member NGOs):
Human Rights House Zagreb (signed by these member NGOs):
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland
Index on Censorship, United Kingdom
Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, Norway
Russian Research Centre for Human Rights, Russia[/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:1547220388132-791b0ba5-0ebf-4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]