Azerbaijan extends pretrial detentions of journalists facing currency charges

Stockholm, July 11, 2024 – Azerbaijani authorities have extended the pretrial detentions of 11 journalists in recent weeks as part of an ongoing crackdown on the country’s few remaining independent media outlets.

The journalists are among 13 media workers from four independent outlets charged since November with currency smuggling related to alleged receipt of Western donor funding. The charges have been brought amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West and as the country prepares to host the COP29 climate conference in November.

“Azerbaijan must stop using incarceration and travel bans as a tactic to silence and intimidate journalists,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “The authorities should drop all charges and restrictions on their movements and immediately release those still in detention.”

Pretrial detentions of the following journalists have been extended since June 10:
* Investigative journalist Hafiz Babali ( two months and one week extension, July 9)
* Toplum TV video editor Mushfig Jabbar (three-month extension, July 4)
* Toplum TV founder Alasgar Mammadli (three-month extension, July 3)
* Kanal 13 director Aziz Orujov (three-month extension, June 25)
* Kanal 13 journalist Shamo Eminov (three-month extension, June 25)
* Meclis.info founder Imran Aliyev (two-month extension, June 13)
* Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli, editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifgizi, and project manager Mahammad Kekalov (three-month extension, June 12)
* Abzas Media journalist Nargiz Absalamova (three-month extension, June 11)
* Abzas Media journalist Elnara Gasimova (two-month extension, June 10).   

Authorities have rejected multiple petitions by Mammadli’s lawyers to transfer him to house arrest so he can undergo further tests for suspected thyroid cancer and he has filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Council following what relatives say was an incomplete medical examination conducted while he was under police guard.

Toplum TV journalists Farid Ismayilov and Elmir Abbasov have been released under travel bans pending trial.

All of the journalists face up to eight years in prison if convicted under Article 206.3.2 of Azerbaijan’s criminal code. Azerbaijani legislation requires official approval for foreign grants, which is routinely denied, while authorities exert pressure on advertisers to squeeze out domestic sources of funding.

Separately, police questioned Shamshad Agha, head of independent news website Arqument.az and a former Toplum TV journalist, on July 5 as a witness in the Toplum TV case and informed him that he was under a travel ban, the journalist told local media. CPJ is investigating reports that at least 20 other journalists may also be banned from leaving the country and that some are also subject to bank account freezes.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who secured a fifth consecutive term in February, has rejected criticism of the arrests, saying Azerbaijan “must protect [its] media environment from external negative influences” and media representatives “who illegally receive funding from abroad” were arrested within the framework of the law.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs for comment on the pretrial extensions and travel bans and the Penitentiary Service for comment on Mammadli’s medical examination, but did not receive any replies.