Journalist Summoned to Police Because of Publications

Baku / 04.07.19 / Turan: The criminal.az website editor Anar Mammadov was summoned to the Baku Main Police Department on July 3. The head of the department Mirgafar Seyidov and the heads of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Garrison of the Capital spoke with him.

The reason for the call was two publications on the website criticizing the police. One publication is an open letter by the head of the Karabakh Movement, Vasif Gurbanzadeh, addressed to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vilayat Eyvazov in connection with the non-disclosure of the robbery of his apartment.

Another article talked about the detention of a suspect in a robbery and his release the next day.

Mammadov noted that the attitude towards him was polite, and the claims were made to him in a cultural form.

"True, they told me that I had allowed injustice and bias to the police. But there was no rudeness," said Mammadov.

Note that Mammadov is currently serving a conditional sentence. He was sentenced in March of this year to 5.5 years of imprisonment with a two-year probation period on charges of anti-state appeals, abuse of power and official forgery.

The reason for criminal prosecution was the publication on the website criminal.az about the assassination attempt on the former head of the city of Ganja Elmar Veliyev.

The verdict on Mammadov was condemned by a number of international journalistic organizations, as well as by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Desir. -16d06-