Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) - Azerbaijan goes to the elections by putting muzzles on the media and blocking websites

Baku / 07.04.18 / Turan: The International Committee to Protect Journalists published an article on the repression of the Azerbaijani authorities on the eve of the presidential elections.

On the threshold of the pre-election presidential elections scheduled for April 11, potential opposition candidates were imprisoned or deprived of the opportunity to flee, and the political landscape was stripped of all options for expressing dissent," the author of the article, Gulnoza Sayid, writes.

Throwing journalists in jail, abducting them from abroad, accusing them of financial crimes, blocking websites, hacking accounts in social networks, imposing travel bans: this is not the final list of measures taken by the government of Azerbaijan with the aim of putting a muzzle on independent media to silence critical vote.

Azerbaijan is among the most brutal jailers of journalists in the world, where as of December 1, 2017 there were 10 journalists. However, international pressure on Baku had a certain impact. Mehman Aliyev, director of Turan agency, the country's the only independent media, believes that

the pressure in the US and international protests over his arrest in August 2017 on false accusations of tax evasion played a key role in his release.

Senator Richard Durbin introduced a bill on imposing sanctions against state officials of Azerbaijan, guilty of the persecution and arrest of Mehman Aliyev, as well as prohibiting foreign financing of projects in this country.

"Senator Durbin's bill, as well as pressure from other senators, including Marco Rubio, John McCain and Patrick Leahy, played a direct role in my release," Mehman Aliyev said. "The amendment was adopted on September 7. The next day, a court session was scheduled. When the authorities found out about the amendment, the authorities told me that President Aliyev had just heard about my case and he was concerned, "M.Aliyev said.

Many journalists prefer to leave and work abroad to avoid arrest or harassment. But the Azerbaijani authorities are trying to silence them.

So, in May 2017 in Tbilisi disappeared investigative journalist Afghan Mukhtarli, who lived there with his family. Two days later he appeared in Azerbaijan, where he was accused of illegal border crossing and smuggling. On January 12, the court sentenced Mukhtarly to six years in prison.

Mukhtarly's wife and his colleagues claimed that he was abducted by Georgian police and transferred to Azerbaijan. The journalist himself confirmed this at the trial.

Another case of the persecution of dissidents abroad is the case of Fikret Huseynli, who was detained in Ukraine in October 2017 at the request of the Azerbaijani authorities.

A citizen of the Netherlands, Huseynli, faces deportation to Azerbaijan.

Despite the decisions of the local court, he is not released from Ukraine, and the prosecutor's office does not return the passport.

Authorities does not let Khadija Ismayilova to leave the country, when she participates in international events on Skype the lights and her Internet is turned off. She was not released even to say goodbye to her dying mother to Turkey.

The authorities give loyal journalists apartments so that they can buy them. The provision of apartments is equivalent to a bribe and is contrary to professional ethics, Mehman Aliyev said, and added that the authorities created an environment where no media can survive without state subsidies. The media that survive by advertising, will die, or the authorities will finish it off.

"The international community should not only continue putting strong pressure on Aliyev's regime but step it up ahead of the elections, because once re-elected for another seven-year term--and I see no obstacles to that-- Aliyev will listen to his foreign partners even less," told CPJ Raufoglu said Alex Raufoglu, a Washington, D.C.-based Azerbaijani journalist who contributes to Turan.-02D-