Authorities Remain Silent despite Leakage of State Secrets in Media

Baku / 13.05.17 / Turan: A new political scandal has unfolded in Azerbaijan, connected with the disclosure in the media of the names of intelligence agents and the fees paid to them in various periods. Thus, a number of Internet sites, without specifying sources, publish information that constitutes a state secret about how individuals were recruited and paid for, with their code and real names.

Amounts of the fees paid are very high and they surfaced allegedly at the trial on the case of the head of the Antiterrorist Center of the former Ministry of National Security Elchin Guliyev. However, the information that appeared in the media far exceeds the scope of what Guliyev said.

There is a deliberate leak of state secrets in mass media on a large scale. However, strangely enough, neither the State Security Service nor the General Prosecutor's Office reacts in any way. They pretend that nothing is happening.

At the request of Turan IA, the press service of the State Security Service refused to answer the question if the publication of the names of agents in the media is a disclosure of state secrets, and advised the news agency to ask the prosecutor's office.

The press service of the Prosecutor General's Office did not comment on the question whether such publications are a violation of state secrets, either. Similar behavior of the state bodies, which in other situations require the press not to publish secret data, to put it mildly, is strange.

So, literally on the eve of that the Prosecutor General's Office called the editor of one of the websites and threatened him with criminal liability for reporting that the Israeli intelligence Mossad helped the authorities of Azerbaijan to identify Armenian agents in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the country. But now the secret services are quietly watching how their agents' network is exposed among public activists, journalists and opposition parties.

This situation only shows that the leak in the media was conscious and proceeded from the state bodies themselves. Why this was done and for what purpose is difficult to say, but one thing is clear: it only dealt a blow and compromised the authority of law enforcement agencies and authorities in general.

Suffice it to recall the case with the well-known journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who was accused of disclosing the presence of an agent in the ranks of the opposition. Despite the fact that the name of the agent was not named, the journalist was prosecuted and answered before the court.

According to numerous legislative acts of Azerbaijan, if a state secret is violated, a special group should be created to investigate such facts and take appropriate decisions. However, it seems the people in the law enforcement agencies do not know about that. -02B-