Committee to Protect Journalists does not believe accusations against "Kanal-13" journalists

Baku/09.01.24/Turan: The Azerbaijani authorities should release "Kanal-13" employees Aziz Orujev and Shamo Eminov, lift the blocking of their Youtube channel and stop repressions against critical media, the New York-based Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) said on January 8.

A freelance journalist working with "Kanal-13", Eminov, was detained on December 22 and the next day the Sabail district court of Baku arrested him for three months and five days on charges of "smuggling foreign currency by prior agreement by a group of persons" (Article 206.3.2 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan).

On December 19, a similar charge was brought against the head of "Kanal-13", Aziz Orujev, who was already under arrest due to the case of "illegal construction".

If convicted under this Article, the journalists face imprisonment for up to eight years.

According to court documents reviewed by the CPJ, the Prosecutor's Office accused Orujev, Eminov and other "unidentified persons" of importing 90,000 manats ($52,940) in cash from foreign donor organizations to Azerbaijan through "numerous transactions" in 2022-2023.

The journalists rejected the accusations, Aziz Orujev's brother Anar Orujev (co-founder of "Kanal-13", is in political exile in Germany) told the CPJ.

According to him, the accusations against Orujev and Eminov are "an attempt by the authorities to silence the critical reports of "Kanal-13."

On December 11, the court decided to block "Kanal-13" in Azerbaijan on the grounds that the channel disseminated "false", "offensive", "defamatory" information about government officials and others.

"Against the background of the ongoing wave of detentions of journalists in Azerbaijan, the latest arrests and charges against "Kanal-13" journalists show how much the authorities want to suppress critical voices in the run-up to the February Presidential Elections," said Gulnoza Said, representative of the CPJ for Europe and Central Asia.

Note that Orujev and Eminov are among seven journalists and media workers arrested in recent weeks on charges of smuggling money from foreign donor organizations.

Anar Orujev told the CPJ that "Kanal-13"s only source of income was revenue from YouTube. He qualified the smuggling charges as "fabricated." Suffice it to say that the authorities froze the bank accounts of Aziz Orujev, Eminov and three other "Kanal-13" journalists, and also blocked the accounts of Orujev's wife and his mother's pension card, he said.

The CPJ sent an email to the Interior Ministry of Azerbaijan asking for comment on the situation, but did not receive a response.—06B-