Rome, Oct 10 (IPS) – On November 20, 2023, Ulvi Hasanli, director of Azerbaijani impartial media AbzasMedia, was arrested as he ready to board a taxi to Baku Airport. In the meantime, uniformed police raided the headquarters of Abzas Media within the Azerbaijani capital, claiming to have discovered 40,000 euros in money, which was used as proof towards Hassanli for forex smuggling.
“I assume we’re specializing in matters which can be too delicate for the federal government,” Leyla Mustafayeva defined throughout a video convention from Berlin to IPS. She has been AbzasMedia’s new editor-in-chief since February.
The 41-year-old Azerbaijani journalist recalled that one of many “overly delicate” matters was associated to Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan the place the Armenian minority moved into exile in September 2023. had been expelled from the realm.
“We investigated contracts for the redevelopment of the realm and located that many firms belonged to senior authorities officers,” the reporter defined. The second subject concerned a synthetic lake the place poisonous waste from gold mines was dumped.
Journalists wished to go additional than overlaying the brutally suppressed protests.
“The locals had been affected by extreme well being issues. We wished to take samples to verify the cyanide content material within the soil and water, however the village was beneath police management,” recollects Mustafayeva, who has been in exile since 2017.
That very same yr, her husband, Azerbaijani journalist and human rights defender Afqan Mukhtarli, was arrested in Georgia and transferred to Azerbaijan in a joint operation in Tbilisi and Baku. Saberan.
As we speak, there are presently 23 journalists in Azerbaijani prisons, together with six from AbzasMedia. The nation ranks 164th out of 180 international locations within the World Press Freedom Index printed yearly by Reporters With out Borders.
Observers agree that the crackdown has escalated since 2023.
“Baku is attempting to silence any dissenting voices in what ought to be an excellent yr for Azerbaijan,” Mustafayeva concluded.
“Repressive State”
Azerbaijan’s present president, Ilham Aliyev, took workplace in 2003, succeeding his father in energy within the gas- and oil-rich nation. The latter is an element that strengthens the soundness of the regime and in addition opens many doorways within the worldwide area.
However its status seems to be inversely proportional to its wealth.
The US NGO Freedom Home calls Azerbaijan “one of many least free locations on the earth”. China ranked 154th out of 180 international locations within the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency Worldwide, a platform working in 100 international locations.
On September 24, Human Rights Watch reminded that this was “the third consecutive yr that the Convention of the Events has been held in a repressive state that severely limits freedom of expression and peaceable meeting” (beforehand Dubai and Egypt).
“You may say that the West has failed Azerbaijani civil society. It’s clear that the precedence is power, not human rights,” Azerbaijani impartial journalist Arzu Geybulla advised IPS through video convention from Istanbul.
She has not set foot in her residence nation since being charged with “treason” in 2014 for working for the Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper Agos. She stated the Armenian subject and something to do with the Azerbaijani household’s maintain on energy over the previous three a long time are two pink traces for journalists and activists.
“The repression has intensified in recent times. Native journalists are fully defenseless towards threats, primarily as a result of they lack authorized safety,” Gebra denounced.
She talked about measures such because the so-called “media regulation” to be handed in 2022.
Nevertheless, journalists aren’t the one targets.
One of the vital high-profile current instances is that of Gubad Ibadoghlu, a professor on the London Faculty of Economics and a outstanding human rights defender in Azerbaijan. He additionally participated within the growth of the United Nations Conference towards Corruption.
On July 23, 2023, Ibadoghlu was touring together with his spouse when their automotive was pushed right into a ditch by three different autos. The couple had been brutally overwhelmed by plainclothes brokers and brought to Baku police custody.
Ibadoglu spent the primary six months in a small cell he shared with 5 different prisoners and was disadvantaged of treatment (he suffered from diabetes) earlier than remaining beneath home arrest awaiting trial on “smuggling prices.” international forex” and “spreading extremist concepts.” He was not allowed to make use of a cellphone and his visits had been restricted.
“It is a message to everybody: if they will arrest somebody like him, they will arrest anybody,” his daughter, human rights lawyer Zhala Bayramova, stated within the Swedish metropolis of Lund spoke to worldwide information businesses by cellphone.
Police additionally claimed that €40,000 was present in a wardrobe in his workplace, regardless of the presence of a secure. Along with the recurring sums, the 26-year-old lawyer pointed to a sample of crackdowns.
“In 2003, they focused political opponents; in 2013, they focused NGOs; now they aim journalists, researchers and teachers,” the Azerbaijani girl harassed.
“There have all the time been political prisoners in Azerbaijan,” she added.
silence
Azerbaijani journalists contacted by IPS famous that working situations had been more and more tough.
“Taking an image on the road can land you in jail. There are police all over the place; it is like an enormous open-air jail,” one reporter advised IPS by cellphone. However fearing reprisals, he demanded Don’t reveal your id.
The Ministry of Inside, Justice, Info and Baku police declined to reply questions forwarded by IPS through electronic mail.
In the meantime, arrests proceed. On August 21, Azerbaijani political analyst Baruz Samadov, who was finding out for a doctorate on the College of Prague, was arrested.
Samadov was finally charged with “treason” after police raided his condominium on suspicion of drug trafficking and allegedly discovered 40,000 euros in money.
Days later, one other Azerbaijani researcher, Kavid Agha, was detained on the airport and questioned by intelligence companies about Samadov. He had deliberate to fly to Lithuania to proceed his research, however is now banned from leaving the nation. As we speak, dozens of journalists and activists face the identical ban.
Agha, 31, has gained a status for translating information and official statements and offering background info through the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh warfare. After a 44-day standoff, Baku subsequently took management of two-thirds of the Armenian-controlled territory.
“Regardless of the brand new technology taking energy, Azerbaijan continues to be doing what it has all the time finished,” Agha advised worldwide information businesses through video convention from Baku.
Agha ignored when the exit ban was lifted and took part in authorized proceedings to make clear his scenario. He acknowledged that he was extra cautious in his remarks “for apparent causes.” He harassed that the federal government “tried to make individuals afraid to talk out”.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedAuthentic supply: Inter Press Service
