Who has brought an “AzerTac” employee to suicide?

Baku/28.02.23/Turan: Aygun Aliyeva, a former correspondent of the state news agency “AzerTac”, attempted suicide early in the morning on February 27. The reason for the incident was the violation by the Supreme Court of the rights of Aygun Aliyeva. Before attempting suicide, she wrote about the reasons for such a step on her Facebook page:

"The culprit of my death is the Supreme Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan and specifically Ramiz Rzayev, who squandered millions of manats of state funds, the former head of “AzerTac” Aslan Aslanov and continuing his policy, deceit Vugar Aliyev.

The journalist was fired because of the critical statuses she posted in 2021 on social networks. Since then, she has tried to restore her rights in court, but in March-April 2021, the Nasimi District Court of Baku did not satisfy her complaint. Aliyeva's appeal was considered in May 2021, and the decision was upheld. In September 2022, the Supreme Court overturned this decision and returned the case to the Court of Appeal for a new hearing.

In December 2022, the Baku Court of Appeal decided to reinstate Aygun Aliyeva at work and pay her compensation. But the defendant filed a cassation appeal, and on January 25, the Supreme Court decided to return the case to the appellate instance.

Lawyer Bahruz Bayramov, who defends the rights of journalist Aygyn Aliyeva, who tried to commit suicide, talks about this in  "A Difficult Question" program by Kamran Mahmudov.

According to him, Aygun Aliyeva has been working at “AzerTac” as a correspondent for 17 years. Until 2020, she worked in European countries – Spain, Italy. Since 2019, the employer's attitude towards her has become negative.

"The reason for this was several statuses on Facebook and other social networks, where she criticized the activities of municipalities. She wrote the following phrase in her profile: "Why should I vote for them? They didn't even install a trash can." After that, she was  summoned  and demanded to write an explanatory note with a promise not to commit such acts in the future. After that, she was dismissed by order of 19.09.22 on the basis of item "g" of art. 70 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan (failure by an employee to fulfill his labor function or obligations under an employment contract, or in case of gross violation of labor duties)," Bayramov said.

He said that in this regard, they filed a lawsuit with the Nasimi District Court. In March-April 2021, the Nasimi Court of Baku did not satisfy her complaint.

"It was motivated by the fact that, firstly, she spoke out on Facebook, and secondly, she did not perform her work functions at the proper level – she did not give enough information. Although in fact, Aygun Aliyeva was the 12th in terms of the number of materials among 24 Azerbaijani journalists operating in Europe. Thirdly, in 2019, the former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Spain, Anar Maharramov (son of Abel Maharramov), wrote a complaint to “AzerTac” that she was improperly carrying out journalistic activities. Obviously, because Aygun Aliyeva criticized him for the lack of reaction to the activities of the Armenian Diaspora. Fourth, during her many years of activity, she was once fined and 15-20% was deducted from her salary.

Allegedly, before her dismissal, she was invited to give explanations," the lawyer said.

According to him, the Court of Appeal, having considered the appeal filed by Aygun Aliyeva in May 2021, upheld the decision of the Nasimi Court. In September 2022, the Supreme Court overturned this decision and returned the case to the Court of Appeal for review.

In October 2022, the Baku Court of Appeal decided to reinstate Aygun Aliyeva and pay her compensation. However, the defendant, the head of “AzerTac”, Aslan Aslanov, who dismissed the journalist, filed a cassation appeal and on January 25, the Supreme Court decided to return the case to the appellate instance.

Soon Aslan Aslanov himself was dismissed from his post. "The new head of “AzerTac”, Vugar Aliyev, offered Aygun Aliyeva to cancel the order on her dismissal under the article, but he did not agree to restore her to her former job and pay compensation.

The journalist did not insist on restoration, but asked to pay compensation for forced absenteeism in 2.5 years. The head of the agency did not agree to this, saying that he should not pay for the mistake of his predecessor, the lawyer said.

According to Bahruz Bayramov, on February 26, 2023, it became known that the decision in favor of the journalist was canceled and uploaded to the electronic judicial system retroactively - on January 25.

"The next day, early in the morning, Aygun Aliyeva tried to commit suicide. Now an investigation is underway, since the talk is about the fact of being driven to suicide," the lawyer said.--0--