Brothers of Gunel Mevlut Released

The brothers of the editor of the Internet resource Meydan TV Gunel Mevlut, who lives abroad, were early released from prison. On this she wrote on her page on Facebook, without specifying the grounds on which it was done and expressing a hope that after that nothing will happen to them.

Vakil and Raja Imanov were arrested on the same day - October 13, 2015 on charges of drug trafficking. Subsequently Vakil Imanov was sentenced to a year in prison, and Raja – to one and a half years in prison.

On April 29 the court replaced the sentence on the brothers by probation.

Gunel Mevlut linked the arrest of her brothers with her professional journalistic activity.

A similar situation occurred with the relatives of the head of Meydan TV Emin Milli, who were also arrested on charges of drug possession and sentenced.

Authorities use this as a form of pressure on journalists who are abroad and the police and security forces cannot reach them. The authorities acted in a similar way with the editor of the newspaper Azadlig and the program Azerbaijan Hour Ganimat Zahid, whose three relatives suddenly proved to be drug traffickers and were sent to jail.

The same fate also befell the relatives of political emigrants who actively criticized the official Baku in the West. -06D-