Court of Appeal keeps all Meydan TV journalists under arrest

The Baku Court of Appeal on Friday considered complaints against the arrest of Meydan TV journalists.

Thus, Nazim Musayev, lawyer of journalist Khayala  Agayeva, asked the court to cancel the arrest decision or change the measure of restraint to house arrest. There is no primary evidence of Agayeva's involvement in ‘smuggling’.

The lawyer asked the representative of the investigation - Baku Police Department - whether there is evidence that Agayeva smuggled foreign currency across the customs border, or did it secretly bypassing customs control? According to the lawyer, the police representative gave a negative answer.

‘Then I asked on what grounds Khayala Agayeva was arrested? The one replied that there were ‘assumptions’ and during the investigation they would ‘prove’ Agayeva's involvement in ‘smuggling’.’

The judge also asked if there was concrete evidence against Agayeva. ‘However, the police spokesman, instead of giving a substantive answer, said that ‘so much and so much money’ had been found... But he never explained what this had to do with Agayeva. Instead he said: ‘Not yet, but we will prove it,’ the lawyer said.

The police representative also answered the question in the negative - does the investigation have information about any connection of Agayeva to 'Meydan TV's financial issues?

However, the court did not satisfy either the complaint nor the motion to change the measure of restraint.

Today the Court of Appeal also considered the complaint against the arrest of another Meydan TV employee, Aytaj Tapdyg.

According to lawyer Javad Javadov, the defence pointed to the illegality of the journalist's arrest and violation of Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the court upheld the decision to arrest Tapdyg.

Also, the Court of Appeal did not satisfy the complaint against the arrest of journalist Ramin Deco, said his lawyer Nemat Kerimli.  According to him, the criminal prosecution of the journalist is unjustified. Although Deco has no complaints about the conditions of detention, but today in court the convoy prevented his confidential communication with his lawyer. In addition, Deco was banned from corresponding with his lawyer.

Also today, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision to arrest media expert Ulvi Tairov, his lawyer Bahruz Bayramov said.

The Court of Appeal also rejected journalist Natig Javadly's appeal, his lawyer Zibeyda Sadigova said.

The appeal stated that the court of first instance failed to investigate the validity of suspicions against Javadly and the grounds for his arrest, she said.

Javadly himself said he had been a journalist for 33 years and had never broken any laws or professional ethics. ‘If I was a criminal, why was I given comments and interviews by MPs, officials, deputies,’ Javadly said, pointing out that he had been honoured with an international award for his journalistic work.

The appeals court also left Aynur Elgunesh in custody, lawyer Elchin Sadigov said. ‘Azerbaijan is the only country where investigative journalism is considered a crime,’ Elgunesh told the court.

The day before, the appeals court had left another 'Meydan TV journalist', Aysel Umudova, in custody.

*Five 'Meydan TV' employees and two other media representatives were detained on 6 October on charges of ‘smuggling foreign currency by prior conspiracy’.

On 8 December the court arrested all of them for 4 months.