{"id":22802,"date":"2011-05-19T14:10:35","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T13:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=22802"},"modified":"2016-11-14T14:15:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T14:15:12","slug":"azerbaijani-facebook-activist-jailed-for-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=22802","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijani Facebook activist jailed for two years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Azerbaijani court sentenced opposition activist <a title=\"Bakhtiyar Hajiyev\" href=\"http:\/\/en.rsf.org\/azerbaidjan-neztizen-bakhtiyar-hajiev-refused-29-04-2011,40197.html\" target=\"_blank\">Bakhtiyar Hajiyev<\/a> to two years&#8217; imprisonment yesterday, 18 May.\u00a0Hajiyev used Facebook to generate support for the 11 March &#8220;Great People&#8217;s Day&#8221; anti-government protests, but was sentenced on a charge of evading military service. The charge was brought against him in January.\u00a0As with <a title=\"Eynulla Fatullayev\" href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/2011\/03\/azerbaijan-the-long-shadow\/\" target=\"_blank\">Eynulla Fatullayev<\/a> and <a title=\"Jabbar Savalan\" href=\"http:\/\/caucasus.foreignpolicyblogs.com\/tag\/jabbar-savalan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jabbar Savalan<\/a>, Hajiev has been sentenced on charges unrelated to his activism, a tactic that increasingly used by the Azerbaijani authorities.\u00a0On 14 May, Azerbaijan won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf, prompting free speech campaigners to launch <a title=\"CPJ's Jean-Paul Marthoz\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.lesoir.be\/lalibertesinonrien\/2011\/05\/15\/leurovision-un-cadeau-empoisonne-pour-laerbaidjan\/\" target=\"_blank\">fresh criticism<\/a> on the government&#8217;s treatment of critical voices. Hajiyev was arrested prior to the demonstration, on 4 March, and held in pre-trial detention. On 12 May, the <a title=\"UNHCR\" href=\"http:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/refworld\/docid\/4dd3cba219.html\" target=\"_blank\">European Parliament<\/a> criticised the crackdown on opposition protests in Azerbaijan and expressed &#8220;deep concern&#8221; at the increased number of attacks on journalists and civil society activists using social networks to bring attention to their campaigns.\u00a0European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek is scheduled to begin a visit to Azerbaijan on 20 May. Hajiyev&#8217;s lawyer said he was planning to appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n<p><em><!--more-->Read the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan&#8217;s report on the deterioration of media freedom in the country <strong><a title=\"IPGA report\" href=\"http:\/\/www.article19.org\/pdfs\/publications\/free-expression-under-attack.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Azerbaijani court sentenced opposition activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev to two years&#8217; imprisonment yesterday, 18 May.\u00a0Hajiyev used Facebook to generate support for the 11 March &#8220;Great People&#8217;s Day&#8221; anti-government protests, but was sentenced on a charge of evading military service. The charge was brought against him in January.\u00a0As with Eynulla Fatullayev and Jabbar Savalan, Hajiev has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8867,584,585],"tags":[115,3175,875,3420],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22802"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79833,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22802\/revisions\/79833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}