A journalist and government critic has been sentenced to two years in prison in Azerbaijan. Anar Bayramli, a correspondent for two Iranian media outlets, was sentenced for a drug possession charge following a controversial court case which was said to include contradictory evidence. Bayramli was arrested in February and charged with possession of four grams of heroin. The journalist was previously summoned by police on a number of occasions to disclose his political affiliation. The sentencing comes at a time when tensions between Azerbaijan and neighbouring Iran are particularly heightened.
An Azerbaijani blogger who had spent 15 months in prison for criticising the government was granted an early release by the supreme court on Monday. Bakhtiyar Hajiyev was arrested in March 2011 after calling on social networks for an anti-government protest, but was convicted and sentenced on a charge of evading military service. He will not be able to travel abroad without special permission for another nine months, until the period of his two-year jail sentence is over.
The lawyer for the editor-in-chief of an Azerbaijani news website has claimed his client was tortured following his arrest.
Nijat Aliyev from Islamic news website Azadexber was arrested on 20 May for narcotics charges and put in two months of pre-trial detention. According to Azerbaijan-based organisation Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), the editor’s lawyer Anar Gasimli has said that Aliyev has been blackmailed while in custody.
Police allegedly condemned the editor for his frequent articles about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, after Nijat admitted to disseminating anti-LGBT material ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest last week.
Gasimli said: “Nijat claims that he was questioned by police. Nijat did not co-operate at which point the police beat him with their fists and, at one point, a chair. The police told him that, as he had written anti-LGBT material, they would put two homosexual men in his cell and then he will become gay too.”
Police also allegedly threatened that if he did not admit to the drug related charges, he would be sentenced to more than five years in prison under more serious charges. According to Gasimli, they also threatened to plant drugs at his apartment, endangering his family, though Gasimli said legal measures had been taken to prevent this.
Emin Huseynov from IRFS said: “We cannot comment on the material that Nijat was said to have distributed, but Nijat Aliyev did not kill anyone, he merely published material and we support the right of people’s freedom of expression.”
This is not the first time a journalist has faced random drug charges. Eynulla Fatullayev, who worked as a reporter on Elmar Huseynov’s magazine Monitor in Azerbaijan and later founded and edited Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaycan, served almost four years in prison for defamation. The conviction in 2007 followed years of harassment and intimidation by the Azerbaijani authorities, including being charged with drug possession in July 2010. Fatullayev was eventually pardoned in 26 May 2011.
Huseynov added: “Certainly the trumped up drugs allegations are nothing new. It started in 2006, with Mirza Sakit, then again with Eynulla Fatullayev and there are numerous other cases. The police regularly accuse activists of drug use yet do not provide any DNA evidence to back up their claims, nor do they admit doctors into prisons.”
Local blogger Haji Hajiyev suggested that the arrest was an attempt to reassure the West that they are tackling Islamic extremism. He said: “It is interesting that they choose to focus on this particular issue at a time when the international community is voicing concerns about human rights and democracy in Azerbaijan.”
Aliyev is currently being held at Kurdakhani investigative prison, but it is believed the torture came from officers of Yasamal District Police Office whilst he was being held in custody. Gasimli says the editor had been tortured in such a way “that no mark of torture was left on his body”.
Gaimili added: “My client could be imprisoned for up to three years. This is against his right to freedom to expression and if unsuccessful, we will take this case to the European Court of Human Rights.”
Alice Purkiss is an editorial assistant at Index. She tweets at @alicemaypurkiss
If the ignominy of coming last in the Eurovision Song Contest was not enough, Norway suffered a further humiliation when it was alleged that a journalist from their official delegation was threatened, stripped to his underwear and told to stamp on an Iranian flag by police at Baku airport. Norway’s Tooji received only seven points on Saturday’s final for his song “Stay”, ensuring that Englebert Humperdinck did not come last. However, this poor showing apparently did not quell the Azerbaijani authorities’ interest in the country.
On Friday, a crew from Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) arrived at Baku airport to catch a flight back to Oslo, among them was Iranian-Norwegian comedian Amir Asgharnejad. Asgharnejad apparently attracted the ire of figures in the Caspian state with his satirical videos around Baku during the week of the Eurovision. Playing a character called Bijan Samami, reminiscent of Sacha Baron Cohen’s creation “Borat”, he jokingly extolled the virtues of Iran and maligned neighbouring Azerbaijan. In a clip of him performing a dance routine, his foot appears to touch a nearby Azerbaijani flag. At passport control, Asgharnejad was taken to a room for questioning while his three colleagues were taken to the plane.
Director of Communications at NRK, Tommy Hansen said: “Between six and seven uniformed police questioned Amir for ninety minutes. They first accused him of possessing narcotics, before ordering him to strip down to his underwear. They then forced him to stamp and spit on the Iranian flag.” Mr Asgharnejad also claims that the officers filmed this event and just before he left the interrogation, he was informed: “If you tell anybody in Norway about this, we will hunt you down and kill you.” A spokesman for the Azerbaijan government, Elman Abdullayev, called the allegations “lies” and “fabrications”.
“This was a routine security procedure because Mr Asgharnejad’s passport photo was taken fifteen years ago and he looked different. This journalist made a video where he kicked the Azerbaijan flag and for this reason, he should not be taken seriously. If someone kicked the British flag, what would you do?”
Tommy Hansen added: “We are curious as to whether this is official policy of Azerbaijani authorities or just a group of police officers behaving badly. We consider this inappropriate to the working conditions of journalists and against human rights.” If true, the incident will no doubt sour relations between Norway and the oil-rich post-Soviet nation, to say nothing of the frosty situation with Iran. Recently the two neighbouring countries have traded insults after Ayatollah Sobhani, a senior cleric, accused Azerbaijan of organising a “gay parade” alongside the song contest. Ali Hasanov, an Azerbaijani government official, retorted: “Azerbaijan does not even have a word for ‘gay parade’. Unlike Iran.” Subsequent demonstrations outside the Iranian embassy in Baku, where protesters allegedly held placards insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, caused Tehran to withdraw its ambassador on Tuesday. Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hanne Melfald referred to the alleged treatment of Mr Asgharnejad as a “serious incident”.
Andrew Connelly is a freelance journalist based in London and currently in Baku. You can follow him at @connellyandrew.
