The prosecutor's office demanded from the site editor not to write about SOCAR

Baku/15.05.19/Turan: Anar Mammadov, the editor of the website criminal.az was summoned to the Baku city prosecutor"s office today. "Previously I was told that they want to return my confiscated computer. However, during the meeting, the head of the investigative department, Rashad Mansurov, talked about the content of the site"s publications," Mammadov told Turan.

"As it turned out, I was called because of the publications about SOCAR. Rashad Mansurov strongly recommended discontinuing these publications. He asked me why and for what purpose I publish articles about the State Oil Company.

I said that I have no goals and asked Rashad Manusrov to put an end to hacker attacks on my site. I also informed Mansurov that representatives of SOCAR are trying to bribe me. I wrote a statement asking me to return the seized computer," said Mammadov.

He noted that several times he asked the representative of the prosecutor's office whether there was an official complaint from SOCAR against him, but did not receive an answer," said Mammadov.

"Thus, because of the publications about SOCAR, I was unofficially summoned to the prosecutor"s office and verbally warned," Mammadov said. He noted that the articles on the property of high-ranking SOCAR officials and their family members were reprinted from other media.

* In March of this year, Anar Mammadov was sentenced 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 bringing him to criminal responsibility was the publication on the website criminal.az about the assassination attempt on the former head of the city of Ganja Elmar Veliyev.

A number of international journalistic organizations, as well as the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Arlem Dezir condemned the verdict against Mammadov.-06B --