Konstantin Adamov, Автор в I will not be silent anymore

The things that happened to the media in 2017

January 12, 2018 Konstantin Adamov Meydan TV, News

January

On 9 January, officers from police station No 22 of the Nasimi district police department detained videoblogger Mehman Huseynov. On 10 January, he was brought before court and fined 200 manats after being found guilty of disobeying police.

He told reporters he was tortured while in custody.

M. Musayev, the chief of the Nasimi district police department, said that this statement by Huseynov libeled the police, and filed a special lawsuit. Following the lawsuit, the Surakhani district court sentenced Mehman Huseynov to two years in prison on 3 March.

Artsakh and Azerbaijan have equal rights to independence

January 4, 2018 Konstantin Adamov News, Re-Post

In order to achieve a breakthrough in the Karabakh settlement, several steps must be taken. This was stated by the vice-speaker of the National Assembly from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, the RPA press secretary Eduard Sharmazanov.

Azerbaijani court upholds blocking of independent news websites

December 25, 2017 Konstantin Adamov Meydan TV, News, Re-Post

On 19 December, the Baku Court of Appeal upheld a ruling to block access to a number of independent news websites in Azerbaijan. The failed appeal had been brought by Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani service, Azadlig (“Liberty”), and the unrelated Azadlig newspaper.

Afgan Mukhtarli: I was arrested on orders from Ilham Aliyev

December 15, 2017 Konstantin Adamov Meydan TV, News

On 14 December, the trial of journalist Afgan Mukhtarli continued at the Balakan District Court. In May this year, Mukhtarli had mysteriously disappeared from Georgia, where he was living, and later resurfaced in Baku – under arrest. The journalist says he was abducted, tortured, and forcefully brought to Azerbaijan, with 10,000 Euro planted in his pockets.

Is Malta covering up Azerbaijani bribery?

November 29, 2017 Konstantin Adamov News

A former policeman in Malta claims that he was fired from his job for investigating large payments made by powerful Azerbaijanis to prominent Maltese politicians.

Speaking to Tom Kingston of the Times of London, former investigator Jonathan Ferris says that he uncovered millions of euros in bribes funneled from Azerbaijan to Malta in return for kickbacks on gas deals. According to Ferris, this investigation of high-level corruption led to his termination from the financial crimes unit of the Maltese police.

Bar Association suspends human rights defender’s legal practice

November 22, 2017 Konstantin Adamov News, Re-Post

On 20 November, lawyer Yalchin Imanov’s legal practice was suspended by a decision of Azerbaijan’s Bar Association, Imanov told Meydan TV. The Bar Association took the action in response to a complaint from the Penitentiary Service against Imanov, who is known for defending political activists.

On 10 August, Azerbaijan’s Bar Association received a complaint about Yalchin Imanov from Ogtay Mammadov, deputy chairman of the Penitentiary Service. In the complaint, the Penitentiary Service accused Imanov of circulating false information in the press. Specifically, the complaint refers to allegations of torture made against the Penitentiary Service by Imanov’s client Abbas Huseynov, deputy chairman of the Muslim Unity Movement. The Penitentiary Service denies the allegations.

Opposition rally attendees fired from their jobs

November 7, 2017 Konstantin Adamov Meydan TV, News

Hasrat Rustamov, a physician and the first deputy chair of the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, has filed a lawsuit to get his job back. He was fired on 6 October because, he says, he had attended rallies held by the National Council of Democratic Forces.

French Court Rejects Case Of Journalists Accused Of Calling Azerbaijan ‘Dictatorship’

November 7, 2017 Konstantin Adamov News

A French court has rejected a lawsuit by Azerbaijan’s government against two French journalists it accuses of defamation in a case described by the defendants and media freedom activists as an attempt by the South Caucasus nation’s authorities to export censorship beyond the country’s borders.

Azerbaijan: Seeking to Arrest Critical Journalists throughout the Ex-USSR

October 22, 2017 Konstantin Adamov News, Re-Post

The arrest of an Azerbaijani journalist in Ukraine marks a fresh instance of free-media-wary Azerbaijan having a critical reporter apprehended outside its borders.

Fikret Huseynli, who survived a beating and stabbing in his native Azerbaijan a decade ago, was arrested on October 14 at Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv as he was about to board a fight to Dusseldorf. He managed to alert his friends about his situation via Facebook before Ukrainian police took him into custody. A local court must still consider Azerbaijan’s extradition request, Ukrainian rights activists report.

“They demanded that I say that I was an Armenian spy”

October 9, 2017 Konstantin Adamov Meydan TV, News

Journalist Ilgar Valiyev, who currently lives outside Azerbaijan, says that he was tortured military servicemen.

The journalist says that the incident took place in March 2017. In a statement released on 4 October, Valiyev calls on the relevant agencies to conduct an investigation. Elchin Sadigov, the journalist’s defense lawyer, has circulated the full text of the statement.