MRI: over the past year after the assassination of Rafiq Tagi, the crime unsolved

Media Rights Institute (MRI), on the eve of the anniversary of the murder of a prominent journalist Rafiq Tagi, made a statement in which it called the heinous crime a heavy blow to freedom of expression in Azerbaijan.

MRI condemned the non-disclosure of the murder and not informing the public about the investigation.

Not identifying the killers and not bringing them to justice causes concern for the effectiveness of the structures, investigating the crime, according to MRI. Moreover, it promotes critical thinking intimidation of society, restrains people from openly expressing their thoughts.

Tagi was attacked by unknown in the evening on November 19, 2011, which caused him several stab wounds. Despite undergoing surgery and stabilization of health, after 4 days the publicist suddenly died in hospital.

The public have a concern for the course of the murder investigation. Relatives and lawyers of the deceased repeatedly issued statements calling into question the objectivity of the investigation, which is carried out by a special group of high-ranking law enforcement officials. There are different versions of the murder, but the investigation has not said how much they are under investigation.

A parallel investigation is conducted by a community group, which found that the area around the site of the attack on Tagi has over 20 video surveillance cameras. Due to the failure of the official investigation to cooperate with the community group, it failed to find records of these cameras.

The failure to meet a number of the lawyer's requests also raises a lot of questions.

In particular, they do not grant an application for the interrogation of persons responsible for the safety of the journalist after putting him in the hospital and for copies of the decisions of law enforcement agencies in connection with investigating the actions of agents through the interrogation of the crime. In addition, the investigation refused to provide the medical history to the family and the lawyers.

In conclusion, MRI requires speedy resolution of the case of the murder of Tagi and providing the public with information about the investigation to the extent this does not cause damage to the secrecy of the investigation.

Shortly before his death, Tagi wrote an article "Iran and the inevitability of globalization," which criticized the clerical regime of Iran.

The Tagi murder was welcomed by an Iranian cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Jawad Lankarani. In 2006, his father, the late Sheikh Fazil Lankarani, issued a fatwa with a death sentence for Rafig Tagi, after he published an article in the Sanat (Art) paper, critical of the Islamic values.

On November 16, 2006 for the article Europe and We that caused organized Muslim protests, Rafig Tagi was arrested along with the editor of the newspaper Sanat Samir Sadagatoglu. In May 2007, Sadagatoglu and Tagi were sentenced to four years and three years in prison on charges of inciting religious hatred. Tagi said that he considered himself a prisoner of conscience, and a number of international human rights organizations condemned the verdict. On December 29, 2007 two men were freed by a presidential decree of pardon.

However, some members of the journalistic community of Azerbaijan questioned the "Iranian trace." Their concerns were also based on the passivity of the investigation of the case and that did not demonstrate the desire to solve this case, despite the fact that it was brought under the control of President Ilham Aliyev.  -06D-