HRW: Azeri Journalist Illegally Detained

Azerbaijani authorities illegally detained a TV journalist on September 16, 2015, and have neither allowed him to see a lawyer nor brought him before a judge, Human Rights Watch said today.

Colleagues fear for the safety and well-being of the journalist, Shirin Abbasov, a regular contributor to independent online television station Meydan TV. The authorities should release Abbasov immediately and take swift action against those responsible for the violations of his right to liberty and security and basic detainee rights.

“Holding Shirin Abbasov in incommunicado arbitrary detention is outrageous and raises real concern that he may be ill-treated,” said Jane Buchanan, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This is an escalation in the Azerbaijan government’s campaign to silence independent media.”  

Officials involved in Abbasov’s unlawful arrest should be investigated for abuse of power, misconduct, and potential criminal offenses, Human Rights Watch said.

The source said that despite his lawyer’s repeated attempts to see Abbasov, officials have not allowed anyone to see him since a brief meeting with his mother on September 17.

According to Meydan TV, on September 17 Shirin was arrested to 30 days for resisting police.  Abbasov’s lawyer told Meydan TV that he was concerned that authorities could use Abbasov’s isolation and detention to put pressure on him to confess to trumped-up charges. Incommunicado detention, as well as violating due process rights, places detainees at an enhanced risk of ill-treatment.

“There is absolutely nothing that justifies denying Shirin Abbasov contact with his lawyer or holding him in the police station for days beyond the legal limit,” Buchanan said. “This leaves the strongest impression that the Azerbaijan government has no actual reason for detaining Abbasov and in fact has something to hide.”

Abbasov’s detention is the latest attack on Abbasov and other Meydan TV staff and contributors, Human Rights Watch said.

In early September, prosecutors questioned Abbasov, allegedly in connection with a death of a local man in the city of Mingechevir after he had been questioned by police. The incident sparked protests that Meydan TV covered, although Abbasov did not go to Mingechevir. Meydan TV reported that Abbasov said that while he had been officially summoned in relation to the Mingechevir case as a witness, he was also questioned about Meydan TV’s activities. Officials also questioned several other Meydan TV journalists in early September about the Mingechevir events.

In June, authorities prevented Abbasov and three other Meydan TV journalists from leaving Azerbaijan as they attempted to attend an international event abroad. Officials reportedly told them they were on a blacklist and barred from exit, although later said that it was an administrative error.

In the last week, authorities have twice taken other Meydan TV journalists, Ayten Farhadova, Izolda Aghayeva, and Sevinc Vaqifqizi, into custody, interrogated them, and then released them, on September 20 at the Baku airport and again on September 22.

On September 18 police searched the Baku apartment of another Meydan TV contributor, Javid Abdullayev, and confiscated computers and cameras. On September 16, the same day as Abbasov’s detention, police from the organized crime unit also detained Aytaj Akhmedova, a freelance journalist and regular Meydan TV contributor, and a friend of hers, and questioned them for five hours, then released them. Akhmedova told colleagues that investigators also asked her about Meydan TV’s activities, management, and salaries.

The government should immediately release all wrongfully imprisoned journalists and human rights defenders and end its crackdown on free speech, Human Rights Watch said.

“The attacks on journalists working with Meydan TV, one of the last sources of independent news about Azerbaijan, shows that the government is going to great lengths to stamp out any remaining critical voices,” Buchanan said. “The European Union and Azerbaijan’s other international partners should call for Abbasov’s urgent release and make clear that there is a price to pay for trampling fundamental freedoms.” -0-