Price of Freedom

The arrested relatives of the expatriate chief editor of the Azadlig newspaper Ganimat Zahid , Rufat and Rovshan Zahidov spread an appeal to the media and the Ministry of Interior, in which they renounced the journalist.

In particular, Rovshan Zahidov asked to eliminate kinship with the chief editor in his background.

He also encouraged the media to exclude his name from the list of "prisoners of conscience".

"My family and I welcome, support and will continue to support domestic and foreign policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev," wrote Rovshan Zahidov.

Around the same vein spoke the journalist’s nephew Rufat Zahidov.

Rufat Zahidov's lawyer Behruz Bayramov told Turan that the proliferation of these applications can be a condition of early release of prisoners.

"Back in the summer, when the Zahidovs were sentenced, in a media interview said that I consider acceptable release of these innocent people by any means," said Bayramov.

The Zahidovs case is currently on appeal.

Zahid himself reacted to the appeal by his relatives on his profile on Facebook:

"Who is more ready to deny the enemies of our statehood - Bukharin, Kamenev, Zinoviev-Trotskyite counterrevolutionary elements?" he said.

The journalist is also the leader of the broadcasting from abroad television program Azerbaijani Hour, in which the Azerbaijani authorities are subjected to harsh criticism.

Rovshan and Rufat Zahidov were arrested in July 2014 on charges of drug trafficking on a large scale. On June 28 this year, the two were sentenced to 6 years in prison.

Amnesty International recognized them "prisoners of conscience". They were recognized by the local human rights defenders as political prisoners and were classified as "political hostages" category, i.e. those arrested because of the activities of their relatives. -06D--