ANOTHER SETBACK FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN AZERBAIJAN: EMIN AND ADNAN COURT RULING
Tert.am
11:25 ~U 11.03.10
Azerbaijani bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, who have been
detained since July 2009, lost their appeal against their conviction
today, reads a release on the Human Rights Watch website.
In a hearing that lasted two and a half hours, the Baku Appeal Court
upheld the trial court’s decision in November, convicting Milli
and Hajizade of hooliganism and inflicting minor bodily harm. The
Appeal Court did not examine the two bloggers’ central contention,
that the attack that led to their conviction had been deliberately
staged to frame them, even though multiple witnesses would corroborate
their claim.
"Today’s ruling is yet another setback for freedom of expression in
Azerbaijan," said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus researcher for Human
Rights Watch.
"The case is blatantly part of a pattern of prosecutions in which
the authorities have brought trumped-up charges against outspoken
journalists and activists in Azerbaijan."
Milli was sentenced to two years in prison and Hajizade to two and
a half years. Milli is a blogger for an online television site and
a coordinator of exchange student alumni.
Hajizade is a video blogger. Both had satirized the government in
blog postings, including on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, in the
weeks preceding the attack.
The defendants allege that on July 8, 2009, they had been talking
about their youth movement in a Baku restaurant when two strangers
approached them, demanded that they stop discussing such matters, and
attacked and injured them. That evening, Milli and Hajizade went to the
police station, filed reports about the attack, and requested medical
assistance. Instead of providing them with medical assistance, the
police interrogated the youths for five hours without their lawyers
and charged them with hooliganism. The alleged attackers were set
free. Milli and Hajizade were not permitted access to their lawyers
until late on the following day.
The restaurant fight appears to have been staged to provide grounds
for a bogus case against the two bloggers, Human Rights Watch said.
Journalists and media representatives in Azerbaijan have been
harassed, threatened, or attacked for their professional activities,
and defamation and other criminal charges have been used to prosecute
opposition and independent journalists. At least three journalists
are currently behind bars on spurious criminal charges.
"The continued imprisonment of Milli and Hajizade reflects growing
government hostility toward freedom of expression," Gogia said. "The
government has a chance to prove the contrary, by setting them free."