My personal blog, my thoughts.
Today’s European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment in favour of an Azerbaijani journalist who faced a sex-tape smear campaign after investigating government corruption exposes the ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression in the country, Amnesty International said.
Read more “European Court ruling provides some justice for journalist who faced sex tape ordeal”
An Azerbaijani media-rights group has added its name to the list of organizations urging the government to release a hunger-striking blogger who was targeted with a new charge just weeks before his expected release from prison.
Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and other watchdog groups, and The Washington Post’s editorial board have also demanded that 26-year-old Mehman Huseynov be freed.
Read more “Demands Mount For Hunger-Striking Azerbaijani Blogger’s Release Amid New Charges”
Mehman Huseynov, who was imprisoned in 2017 after posting incriminating photographs of properties he claimed were owned by government officials, was set to be released in March of 2019. However, new charges have been brought against him which carry a five to seven year prison sentence if found guilty.
“The name of this village is connected with a massacre that the world media don’t write about.” This sentence comes from the book “Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh” published in 2001. It was authored by cross-bench member of the House of Lords of the UK Baroness Caroline Cox and CEO of the Christian Solidarity International John Eibner.
“This village is Maraga.” (marked as “Leninavan” on some Soviet-time maps: this was the name of two united villages – Maragi and Margushevan in the Mardakert region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). The tragedy of Maraga hasn’t been covered in the world press. And in Armenian press, Maraga is only remembered in connection with the anniversary of that terrible day – April 10, 1992.
Read more “Maraga Massacre – The World Media Wrote Nothing About it”
A Baku district court issued an arrest warrant against Netherlands-based Azerbaijani video blogger and social media activist Ordukhan Teymurkhan, Radio Liberty reported last Friday relying on a source from the Prosecutor’s Office.
Teymurkhan is charged under three articles of the criminal code relating to calls for terrorism, mass riots and attacks against the state, the sentence for which is up to eight years in prison.
Read more “Criminal case launched against exiled blogger Ordukhan Teymurkhan”
Mustafa Hajibeyli, editor-in-chief of the bastainfo.com website, was summoned to the Baku prosecutor”s office as a witness in connection with a lawsuit. However, today he was transferred to the status of the accused. He is charged under the following Articles of the Criminal Code: 281.2 (appeals against the state), 309.2 (abuse of office) and 313 (official forgery).
“According to the accusation, I allegedly made anti-state appeals, deliberately misleading the public and spreading false information,” said Hajibeyli in an interview with Turan.
The former deputy of the Milli Majlis, the former head of the Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Azerbaijan Republic, Eldar Sabiroglu, published his Facebook status on his son’s page. He told how his son is being tortured in custody. His son Rufat Safarov has been deprived of his freedom for the third year. At the end of 2015, the investigator of the Zardab district prosecutor’s office, R.Safarov, made a bold and sensational statement about corruption and lawlessness in law enforcement, then resigned and was soon arrested, of course. The authorities do not forgive such statements.
Read more “Boomerang law. After all, life does not end tomorrow”
Opposition leader Ali Karimli, who was detained together with more than 50 other people for participating in what authorities have criticized as an unauthorized rally, was released again on Monday, 19 November, after having been fined ₼2,500 ($1,470).
Read more “Ali Karimli and other activists fined and released, three sentenced to prison”
The noise that arose around civil activist Asi Khachatryan reached Azerbaijan. Tehran Bayramov in this country, infuriated compatriots threaten with cruel reprisals for photos of an Armenian girl
Read more “Azeri man, photographed with Asya Khachatryan, compatriots threaten reprisals”
Azad Hasanov, Musavat party member and political exile living in Lithuania, has been arrested during a short return to his home country and charged with drug trafficking.
According to his lawyer, Osman Kazimov, the Khatai District Court sentenced him to four months in detention on drug-related charges. Under Article 234.4.3 (illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of sale of drugs), Hasanov faces between five and twelve years in prison.