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H.E. Ilham Aliyev
President
Ilham Aliyev
Office of the President
19 Istiqaliyyat Street
Baku, AZ 370066
Republic of Azerbaijan
Your Excellency:
It is no small matter that the developing democracy which you head has managed to achieve global notoriety for the increasing repression of freedom of the press and the harassment, jailing, and even murder of journalists. As a member of the Council of Europe, the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan is both legally and morally obliged to honor its commitments, which are extensive and clear with regards to media freedom.
We of the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC), an organization of international journalists for more than sixty nine years, write in strong protest against your government’s apparent indifference to, if not cooperation with, the organizers and actors in the incidents we list below, since early 2008. Please take a moment to peruse these, since possibly you are unaware of them.
• On February 22, Agyl Khililov, while attempting to film an illegal land sale in Baku, was attacked and severely beaten. Local residents who came to his rescue reported that local officials and ministry employees were among the attackers. The journalist, working for the opposition Adzadlya newspaper, reported the incident to the police, but at the time, no case was opened.
• On March 13, Khililov was attacked again and stabbed in the chest when leaving his office. His injuries were serious, though not life threatening. He is convinced that the attack was linked to the previous attack and his reporting on officials involved in illegal land grants.
• Qanimat Zahid, editor-in-chief of Adzadlya, who had been in pre-trial detention since November of 2007 on dubious charges after being the victim of an attack, was sentenced on March 7 to four years in prison on charges of “hooliganism and causing damage to the health of a person.” The court session was unscheduled, and Zahid's lawyer was not notified that it would happen. There exists a strong impression that criminal law is being used by the government to pressure critical media, and that fair trials procedure was not observed.
• The shocking story of Agil Khalid, a reporter for Adzadlyg, begins on February 22 of this year when two unidentified men attacked and beat Mr. Khalid as he was trying to report on the cutting down of trees in Olive Gardens in Baku. These men broke his finger, stole his press card and tried to strangle him with the cord of his camera. He immediately reported the incident to the police, though he had been warned not to do so.
On March 13, Khalid was again attacked by four unidentified assailants as he left his office. One stabbed him in the chest, narrowly missing his heart, according to the doctor who operated on him.
After being assaulted a third time on May 7 by two men who tried to push him onto the tracks of a Baku subway station, Khalid was again cornered later that day by two men who tried to kidnap him near his house in Baku.
• Then Khalid began a period of open harassment by officials. A few days later, he tried to visit relatives in Istanbul but was stopped by the Prosecutor General’s Office at the airport. The following day, he tried to leave by land but was turned away at the border. On the 14th of May he was summoned to the prosecutor’s office, questioned, and asked to sign a paper agreeing not to leave the country. He did not sign. On June 18, he was again stopped when he tried to board a plane for Paris. There is a trial pending in which Khalid, the victim, is charged with offering inaccurate evidence. As a victim, not a suspect, he says he fears for his life.
• On June 14, the head of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, Emin Huseynov, was beaten by police in Baku. Covering an event celebrating the anniversary of Che Guevara, he was taken by police and moved to a station. There he was isolated, interrogated, threatened and beaten. He was hospitalized after losing consciousness, having suffered repeated blows to the head with fists and guns, and was in critical condition. He has not yet fully recovered. Two days earlier, he had been detained and interrogated for three hours. Three officers took his passport and deleted photos he had taken at another rally.
• On June 25, a Baku court committed Novruzali Mamedov to ten years in prison on charges of treason. Mamedov, editor of a small and now defunct minority newspaper, Talyshi Sado, was tried in closed-door proceedings that began in March. The verdict was read in the absence of his lawyer, his family and the press. His lawyer has claimed that the charges were fabricated. Mamedov has demanded that the case and the evidence be made public. Your Excellency, if not, why not?
These cases are perhaps the most egregious, but by no means comprehensive. Your country, Your Excellency, in addition to your membership in the Council of Europe, is signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. You surely understand the functioning of democratic international organizations, but it is a question whether you devote time and effort to the enforcement of the laws and principles of your country’s democracy. You have been host to many world leaders and are said to be a serious observer of the state of society. We at the OPC urge you to fight for your country’s democratic and moral standards, to guarantee freedom of expression in the media, and to provide the security that is due our colleagues in Azerbaijan. May we have the courtesy of your reply?
Respectfully yours,
Jacqueline Albert-Simon
Larry Martz Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
H.E. Yashar Aliyev
AmbassadorAzerbaijan to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan
2741 34th Street., NW.
_ Washington, DC 20038
Fax: (202) 337.5911
Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaizan to the United Nations
866 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 371.2784
H.E. Anne E. Derse
U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan
Embassy of the United States of America
7050 Baku Place
Baku Azerbaijan
Fax: (011.994.12.1) 90.55.71
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