Azerbaijani Journalist May Be Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison in Moscow

Baku/17.02.21/Turan: The wife of a Moscow journalist, editor-in-chief of the online publication AzRu, the United Information Portal of Azerbaijanis in Russia, Roman Agayev, appealed to Azerbaijan for help.

Leyla Mammadova reports that on October 19 last year, her husband Roman Agayev was arrested in a custom, fabricated and completely falsified criminal case, to which he has nothing to do. At 6 am, masked armed men broke down the doors of their house, searched their homes, confiscated computers and took Roman away. A trial was held 48 hours later. Since then, Agayev has been in house arrest until March 16, 2021, with the deprivation of any contact with the outside world. Agayev was presented with an absolutely fictitious charge under Part 2 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for imprisonment for up to 7 years, the journalist's wife writes.

On October 28, 2020, the pro-Armenian Russian edition of EADaily reported that “two Azerbaijani nationalists, Rahib Bayramov and Roman Agayev, were arrested in Moscow for hooliganism. Bayramov, presumably, is the head of the community "For the good of the common people" (hereinafter - VBON) and was an active member of the national-cultural autonomy of Azerbaijanis in Moscow.

Journalist Roman Agayev is an assistant to the deputy (from Fair Russia) of the Council of Deputies of the city district of Khimki Khanoglan Saleh oglu Aliyev. The information comes from the head of the capital branch of the society Two-Headed Eagle Andrey Afanasyev. According to him, VBON gained fame after incidents with "upholding the values ​​and interests of Azerbaijani citizens on the territory of Russia." People were beaten for expressing personal opinions on social networks that were undesirable to VBON, reported Afanasyev.

Law enforcement agencies carried out a check in relation to this organization on the basis of a joint statement by the Two-Headed Eagle Society and State Duma Deputy Vasily Vlasov. Earlier, the Moscow police did not find signs of extremism in the activities of the members of the VBON organization, and they refused to initiate a criminal case due to the lack of statements from the victims. However, in relation to Roman Agayev, the punitive machine of Russia has started working, and the journalist is waiting for the completion of the investigation and trial.

The Two-Headed Eagle, or Tzargrad Society, claims to be aiming at the restoration of the Russian empire; publications on the Eagle website trace the propaganda of Russian nationalism. One of the goals: to protect the domestic labor market from the inflow of low-skilled labor from the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

L. Mammadova writes that someone was very frightened by the truth that Roman told in the Russian media in defense of Azerbaijan's just struggle for the liberation of its occupied lands. She blames "some unworthy representatives of the Azerbaijani community" who have withdrawn from the misfortune of her family.

The persecution of Roman on the basis of his professional activity with the manifestation of national discrimination continued with total pressure on Roman's wife and daughter. They had to quit their jobs. The family was left without funds and needs help.

The costs of a lawyer, as well as the daily needs of the family and minor children, are a rather heavy burden in conditions when there is no opportunity to work and earn money, the wife of the arrested journalist writes further. She asks for help, giving the number of the Sberbank card: 4276400060109791 / LEYLA MAMEDOVNA MAMEDOVA.

In 2019, an Azerbaijani journalist Fuad Abbasov, who spoke on the Internet and on TV channels in defense of Azerbaijan, was also arrested in Russia, then expelled for 49 years. —0—