{"id":63686,"date":"2015-01-29T17:17:15","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=63686"},"modified":"2017-05-09T09:55:11","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T08:55:11","slug":"azerbaijan-journalist-sentenced-to-five-years-for-aggravated-hooliganism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=63686","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan: Journalist sentenced to five years for “aggravated hooliganism”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Seymur-Hazi\"<\/p>\n

Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Hezi<\/a>, who works for Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award-winning newspaper Azadliq, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for “aggravated hooliganism”, according to Azadl\u0131q Radiosu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Index condemns the sentencing of Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Hezi, who was arrested last year on trumped up charges of disorderly conduct. The ‘crime’ for which he is actually being punished is journalism and his attempts to tell the truth about a brutal authoritarian regime that systematically stifles dissent,” Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg said.<\/p>\n

Hezi\u2019s sentencing is another sign of the continuing clampdown by Azerbaijan\u2019s authoritarian government on civil society. Earlier this week, investigative journalist\u00a0Khadija Ismayilova<\/a>‘s pre-trial detention period was extended by a Baku court; other prominent human rights defenders who have been arrested in recent months include:\u00a0Leyla Yunus<\/a>, Arif Yunus<\/a>, Rasul Jafarov<\/a>,\u00a0Anar Mammadli\u00a0and Intigam Aliyev.<\/p>\n

Hezi was arrested<\/a> on August 29 2014 after an altercation in which the journalist said he was protecting himself from a physical assault and harassment, according to his lawyers.<\/p>\n

Azadl\u0131q Radiosu reported that Hezi’s lawyers and family are certain the arrest and the sentence are politically motivated and that Hezi is innocent.
\nHis father, Meshqul Heziyev told Azadl\u0131q Radiosu, “the hearing was biased and turned down all of the motions. At the end it simply carried out a politically motivated order”.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeymur Hezi\u2019s arrest is a serious blow against our newspaper. He is one of the brightest Azerbaijani analysts and journalists, and a true intellectual,\u201d Rahim Haciyev, acting editor of Azadliq newspaper, told Index at the time of Hezi’s arrest.<\/p>\n

Haciyev said he is sure Hezi\u2019s arrest is the result of a planned provocation and the journalist is prosecuted for publishing critical articles on the authorities in the newspaper, as well as in his online TV program \u201cAzerbaijani Hour\u201d, which he scripts and hosts.<\/p>\n

In March 2011, Hezi was abducted and tortured by unidentified men. He was warned to keep quiet.<\/p>\n

Seymur Hezi is also host of news programme “Azerbaijan Hour” and is a member of the opposition Popular Front Party.<\/p>\n

This article was published on 29 January 2015 at indexoncensorship.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Hezi, who works for Index on Censorship Free of Expression Award-winning newspaper Azadliq, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for “aggravated hooliganism”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[7145,8867,6903,581],"tags":[6894,6393,3563,4236,6896,115,6895,3172,3571,6660,3506,6392,5873,6784],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63686"}],"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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63686"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87087,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63686\/revisions\/87087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}