Criminal Investigation against Turan Politically Motivated – Human Rights Activist

Baku / 12.08.17 / Turan: The Monitoring Center for Political Prisoners strongly condemned the criminal investigation against the Turan News Agency on charges of tax evasion.

The human rights organization regards this as a prejudiced and politically motivated step.

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How political prisoners are tortured in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani political prisoner Abbas Huseynov has been tortured in a prison (popularly known as the Gobustan prison), in which he is held and which belongs to the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry’s Penitentiary Service. Abbas Huseynov is a deputy to the leader of the Muslim Unity movement, Taleh Baghirzadeh. The torture was carried out by the prison governor, a deputy prison chief and several guards, Huseynov told his defence lawyer Yalchin Imanov. The lawyer told us about what happened in the notorious high-security prison for especially dangerous criminals, which is located 70 kilometres outside Baku.

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Shrinking space for Azerbaijan’s last independent voices

On 8 August, Azerbaijani tax authorities launched an investigation of Turan News Agency. Local civil society activists and international human rights organizations believe this investigation is aimed at the termination of the activities of the last independent media outlet in the country. On 24 August Mehman Aliyev, the director of the news agency and a well-known journalist was sentenced to three months pretrial detention on charges of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of power. As a result, Turan announced that it planned to suspend its operations as of September.

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Former political prisoners, journalists, human rights defenders condemn arrest of Mehman Aliyev

Statement of The Working Group on Unified List of Political Prisoners on the Detention of Mehman Aliyev and the Suspension of Turan News Agency’s Activities

The Working Group on Unified List of Political Prisoners is dismayed by the news of the detention of the director of Turan News Agency, Mehman Aliyev, and the suspension of the only remaining independent news media in Azerbaijan – Turan News Agency.

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Blogger Lapshin May Face Up to 6.5 Years in Prison

The trial of travel blogger Alexander Lapshin continued yesterday in Baku’s Court of Grave Crimes.

At the trial the prosecutor claimed that the guilt of the defendant had been fully proved. According to the prosecutor, Lapshin himself had acknowledged that he had illegally crossed the state border of Azerbaijan, however he did not admit to acting in cohort with a criminal group – that is, the five individuals with whom he crossed into Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Missing Journalist Sparks Protests, Conflicting Stories

Authorities in Azerbaijan and Georgia are facing mounting criticism for their possible role in the apparent kidnapping of Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijani journalist who disappeared from Tbilisi on May 29 and was next seen two days later being led into a Baku courtroom.

Mukhtarli has been charged with illegal border crossing, disorderly conduct, and currency violations. Police claim he did not have his passport when he was arrested and that he was carrying an undeclared €10,000 (about US$ 11,200). The court sentenced him to 90 days’ pre-trial detention.

Leyla Mustafayeva, Mukhtarli’s wife, told police that her husband had called to tell her he was on his way home after meeting with friends when he disappeared. She said he had no passport and no more than a few Georgian lari (about US$ 2) on him at the time.

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Reporters Without Borders, Council of Europe on Mukhtarli’s Arrest

Reporters Without Borders and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe have issued a statement in connection with the abduction of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli in Tbilisi.

“The Georgian authorities must immediately explain what happened to Afghan Mukhtarli, and provide security guarantees to other Azerbaijani dissidents based in Georgia,” the organization said.

“It does not matter who abducted Mukhtarli – the Azerbaijani operatives or the Georgian security forces: it is a very serious incident that will not be left without consequences. We demand the immediate release of Afgan Mukhtarli, who was tortured and ill-treated. The use of fabricated accusations against independent journalists is standard practice in Azerbaijan, the ruling regime once again has showed that it can create problems outside the country, and it’s time to answer for all these actions”, the statement says.

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Amnesty International: Azerbaijan Must Investigate Recent Prison ‘Suicide’

Amnesty International is calling on the Azerbaijani authorities to ensure a prompt, independent and effective investigation into the deaths of Mahir Mustafayev and Mehman Galandarov.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on May 4 that the Azerbaijani government had violated the right to life of Mahir Mustafayev without protecting his life and without conducting an effective investigation into the circumstances of his death.

Mustafayev died of severe burns as a result of a mysterious fire in his cell in December 2006.

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10 Years for Graffiti: Prisoners of Conscience in Azerbaijan

Exactly one year ago today, two young Azerbaijani men, Bayram Mammadov and Qiyas Ibrahimov, wrote anti-government slogans on a monument to Heydar Aliyev in Baku. The next day, they were arrested, accused of drug distribution and possession and sentenced to 10 years.

Meydan TV tells the story of these “monument prisoners”.

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