“They demanded that I say that I was an Armenian spy”

Journalist Ilgar Valiyev, who currently lives outside Azerbaijan, says that he was tortured military servicemen.

The journalist says that the incident took place in March 2017. In a statement released on 4 October, Valiyev calls on the relevant agencies to conduct an investigation. Elchin Sadigov, the journalist’s defense lawyer, has circulated the full text of the statement.

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Azerbaijan Laundromat: Merkel ally ‘received cash from regime’

Merkel ally ‘received cash from regime’

This article was published by the Guardian

Revelations over payments by Azerbaijan to European politicians have seeped into the German election as it emerged that a close ally of Angela Merkel allegedly received money from the authoritarian regime.

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Afgan Mukhtarli makes appeal to international organizations

Imprisoned investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli has been questioned with respect to criminal proceedings launched against Gozal Bayramli, deputy chair of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party (PFAP).

Mukhtarli wrote about this in a letter he sent to Bastainfo. He said that during the questioning he was asked about Dashgin Aghalarli, who currently resides in Georgia, and Farman Jeyranli, the founder of the clinic Lancet, who is in jail in Georgia.

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OCCRP blocked in Azerbaijan

On 5 September, the website of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) was blocked in Azerbaijan.

The block occurred hours after OCCRP published a major investigation into corruption, bribery, and money-laundering, in which President Aliyev, his family, and other powerful figures are alleged to have been involved. The investigation, known as the Azerbaijani Laundromat, is based on leaked banking records, and details the way in which $2.9 billion was laundered through a series of shell companies and then used to bribe European politicians, buy luxury goods, or move money abroad for other purposes.

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How political prisoners are tortured in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani political prisoner Abbas Huseynov has been tortured in a prison (popularly known as the Gobustan prison), in which he is held and which belongs to the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry’s Penitentiary Service. Abbas Huseynov is a deputy to the leader of the Muslim Unity movement, Taleh Baghirzadeh. The torture was carried out by the prison governor, a deputy prison chief and several guards, Huseynov told his defence lawyer Yalchin Imanov. The lawyer told us about what happened in the notorious high-security prison for especially dangerous criminals, which is located 70 kilometres outside Baku.

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