IRFS: Azerbaijan�s Refusal to Investigate the Murder of Elmar Huseynov is Yet Another Blow to Freedom of Expression

The Institute for Reporters" Freedom and Safety strongly condemns the Azerbaijani authorities for the deliberate inaction and the factual refusal to investigate the murder of journalist Elmar Huseynov and calls on the law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan to bring to justice both masterminds and perpetrators of the insidious crime, aiming to silence the famous critic.

The well-known exposer of the ruling regime of Ilham Aliyev, the chief editor of the Monitor magazine, was shot dead, on the threshold of his house on March 2, 2005 in Baku, a capital of Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that the following day, President Ilham Aliyev publicly denounced the murder and promised to find and punish the culprits as soon as possible, the regime has done, over the past 14 years, everything possible so that those who ordered the murder will not be pursued by the law. The Azerbaijani authorities released only short statements in which they revealed that citizens of Georgia, Tahir Khubanov and Teymur Aliyev, are suspected of committing the murder, and referred to the difficulties in extraditing the two suspects from Georgia as the main reason why it is not possible to continue the investigation.

IRFS considers that the difficulties encountered in the extradition of the two are nothing more than an invented excuse, as for the last fourteen years the local and international community have seen no evidence of attempts by the authorities to find the suspects. Furthermore, the authorities did not even put Tahir Khubanov and Teimuraz Aliyev on the international wanted list through Interpol. Moreover, the investigation did not make a single step in trying to find out who ordered the execution of the journalist.

"The hostilities of the ruling Aliyev clan towards the uncompromising journalist has not changed even after his murder, increasing the public's suspicions, more and more each year, that the current government is behind the murder of its critic," said Emin Huseynov, Executive Director of IRFS. "Over the past 14 years, not one out of six murders, of the critics of the government, has been thoroughly investigated, and the murder of Elmar Huseynov suffers from the highest degree of impunity," summed up Emin Huseynov.

The observations of the past five years of the dramatic deterioration of freedom of speech in Azerbaijan speaks of the fact that with every month the authorities are trying more and more to restrict this freedom. The shutdown of unwanted television, radio stations, independent print and online media; Incarceration of journalists on various trumped-up charges; continued prosecutions of the critics of the authorities, for example the recently sentenced prominent journalist, Mustafa Hajibeyli; blocking the Internet; the flourishing of state propaganda against the background of the complete destruction of pluralism; restricting freedom of movement for journalists; the ongoing hardening of the legislature and other numerous examples of pressure on the press, clearly demonstrate that the political will of the authorities is aimed at eradicating alternative sources of information in order to silence the public debate.

IRFS demands that the Azerbaijani authorities immediately resume the investigations into the murders and other crimes against journalists, remove all artificially created restrictions on the activities of the independent media and journalists, guarantee and ensure the safety of all critical voices and immediately release from prisons all victims of attacks on freedom of expression.

IRFS calls on the Georgian authorities to clarify the statements of the Azerbaijani authorities regarding the involvement of the two Georgian nationals in the murder of the Azerbaijani journalist.

IRFS also calls on the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the European Union as well as all countries committed to the values of human rights and democracy, to put pressure on the Azerbaijani government and demand that it investigates all crimes against journalists, including the murder of Elmar Huseynov.

IRFS urges the international community to support civil society in Azerbaijan in conducting alternative investigations of crimes against journalists and developing preventive measures that would help reduce the threat and risks to the work of the media society in Azerbaijan.