Azerbaijan Warned against Encroaching on Freedom of Press
// The United States condemns the arrest of a top journalist
The United States lashed out at Azerbaijan for cracking down on independent media. Harsh words sounded in a reaction to the arrest of Ganimat Zakhidov, editor-in-chief of the Azadlig newspaper. The journalist from the country’s one of the most respected publications faces five years in prison for minor hooliganism.
Journalists and Hooligans
Ganimat Zakhidov, editor-in-chief of Azerbaijan’s oldest and most respected independent newspaper Azadlig, was going to work on November 7. At the entrance of the editorial office he saw a young lady who was standing on the porch talking on her cell phone. Once the editor came up the stairs to pass by her, the girl started shrieking that she was being harassed. A young sporty man ran out of the building immediately. He accused the journalist of harassing his fiancée and tried to get Mr. Zakhidov on the ground. The journalist did not fall down but tried to put up resistance. Passer-bys pulled the men apart, after which the two young people ran away, got a taxi and fled the scene.
They went to a legal medicine expert and got a paper proving that Vusal Gasanov, the young man in question, sustained “light bodily injuries which posed to danger to life”. Afterwards, Mr. Gasanov went to the police and filed a complaint over anti-social behavior of Mr. Zakhidov.
On November 10, the editor of Azadlig was summoned for interrogation and was brief of charges brought against him for causing light bodily harm (Article 127 of the Criminal Code) and hooliganism (Article 221). A day later, the court ruled to keep both Ganimat Zakhidov and Vusal Gasanov in custody for two months. The editor faces up to five years in prison if he is found guilty.
Meanwhile, Vusal Gasanov turned out to be a person with some political background. Arzu Abdullayeva, chair of the Azerbaijan National Committee at the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, told Kommersant that Mr. Gasanov had been convicted in Azerbaijan several years ago but served less than a half of his four-year sentence. Upon his release in 2005 he rushed to sign up for one of the largest opposition parties, the Azerbaijan Popular Front. Azerbaijan held election the same year, and most international observers reported numerous violations and rigging the vote. Opposition launched protests. At this point, Vusal Gasanov made a speech on television accusing his fellow party members of receiving funds from abroad to plot a coup against legitimate authorities.
The Azadlig newspaper and its employees have never been accused of any hooliganism or anti-social behavior. But its journalists have recently been accused of defamation and insulting authorities. In summer 2006, Mirza-Sakit Zakhidov, satirist poet and brother of Azadlig’s editor-in-chief, was sentenced to three years in prison for drug possession. Human rights activists insist that the drugs were planted on him. Soon afterwards, the father of Ganimat and Mirza-Sakit Zakhidovs, who is not the paper employee, was charged with stealing sheep but was acquitted. Behind the bars Mirza-Sakit Zakhidov did not stop writing poetry about the political situation in the country.
Five more journalists are now imprisoned in Azerbaijan. The trial for one of them finished in late October. Editor of Realny Azerbaidzhan and Gundelik Azerbaycan Einulla Fatullayev was found guilty of breaching three articles of the criminal code – a threat of terrorism, inciting national, racial and religious hatred abusing his position and tax evasion. He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
Georgian Experience
Azeri journalists say that recurrent trials against independent media foreshadow the upcoming presidential election campaign for the poll next fall. Mirza Sakit-Zakhidov who is serving his term in prison is of the same opinion. In his latest poetry cycle headlined “Black Notepad” he writes that the pre-election year in Azerbaijan has begun. Meanwhile, other independent journalists note that accusing reporters of minor hooliganism is quite an unorthodox way of cleaning the pitch before the poll.
The last article Ganimat Zakhidov wrote before his arrest was on Georgia and Mikhail Saakashvili’s actions against independent media. Emergency rule in Georgia barred almost all television channels from broadcasting. Riot police stormed the most opposition-leaning TV channel, Imedi. President Mikhail Saakashvili promised to lift the state of emergency only after the United States stepped in to condemn the actions. Imedi, however, is still off air.
Azeri journalists believe that the reaction of Washington is no less important for Ilkham Aliyev than it is for Mikhail Saakashvili. Developments around Azadlig’s editorial office could be some sort of test as authorities may be checking how far they can go and whether they enjoy the same degree of freedom of actions as their Georgian counterparts.
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department has issued a statement to express “deep concern over the arrest of Ganimat Zakhidov, editor-in-chief of pro-opposition newspaper Azadlig that is routinely critical of the government and authorities.” U.S. officials noted that “these events suggest an alarming trend of deliberate pressure against the independent and pro-opposition media” in Azerbaijan where within the past several month journalists were arrested, beaten and prosecuted for libel, defamation and other offences. PACE Monitoring co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan Andres Herkel believes that “imprisonment of journalists badly influences the image of Azerbaijan in the world and shows the suppression of freedom of speech in Azerbaijan.”
Almost concurrent with the trial for Mr. Zakhidov Azeri authorities became increasingly active in fighting terrorism. Last weekend, officials reported the arrest of an armed Wahhabi group who had reportedly been plotting attacks on U.S. and British embassies and terrorist attacks other venues that attract a lot of people. Azeri police says that the man behind the thwarted attacks was an al-Qaeda agent and Osama bin Laden’s envoy in Azerbaijan nicknamed Abu Djafar. The U.S. Department of States has not commented on the reports and is no hurry to thank Azerbaijan for a successful anti-terrorism operation.
Rafael Mustafaev, Baku, and Mikhail Zygar, Moscow
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 14, 2007
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