Baku’s Yasamal District Court released Mehman Aliyev, head of independent news outlet the Turan Information Agency, from pretrial detention on 11 September, placing him under house arrest. The charges against him are still pending.
The news comes the same day that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Aleksandr Lapshin, a blogger imprisoned for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh.
‘I was ready for everything’, Aliyev toldRadio Azadlig, RFE/RL’s local service.
Caucasian Knotquoted Aliyev’s lawyer, Fuad Aghayev, as saying that they will continue to fight the charges against him.
According to Azerbaijani presidential aide Ali Hasanov, Aliyev appealed to the president to move him to house arrest, Caucasian Knotwrote.
Azerbaijan’s Taxes Ministry opened an investigation into the Turan Information Agency on 7 August, and on 16 August raided their offices in Baku, confiscating financial, work, and personal records, and freezing their accounts.
Aliyev was summoned to the ministry for questioning on 24 August, where he was arrested and taken to Baku’s Yasamal District Police Station, where he was charged with ‘tax evasion’ and ‘abuse of power’.
Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova has claimed on Facebook that 19 political prisoners have been released over the last three days. ‘There are still about 130 political prisoners in Azerbaijan’, she added.
On 11 September, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order pardoning blogger Aleksandr Lapshin, who was imprisoned for for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh.
For years Azerbaijan has been criticised for its dismal record on media freedom and repression of journalists, the media, and opposition figures by a number of international watchdogs, including Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, and the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety.
Azerbaijan has come under international pressure in the last week over allegations it paid bribes to a number of high level European and UN politicians in exchange for favourable treatment. An investigation from the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and others revealed that Azerbaijani authorities laundered almost $3 billion in the UK between 2012–2014, which was reportedly used to make the illicit payments. The Council of Europe has launched an investigation into the scandal.
Over the last month, Azerbaijan’s official government news agency Azertac has published multiple articles focusing on ethnic Azerbaijani candidates running for the ruling Georgian Dream party, while failing to provide a platform for Azerbaijani opposition candidates.
On 16 October, Azertac interviewed Georgian Dream MP Zaur Darghalli, who said that his party had guaranteed stability in Georgia, and elaborated on how it was able to keep the peace for the last 12 years.
‘These elections are
Ethnic Talysh activist Mirhafiz Jafarzade, who advocated for the creation of Talysh school textbooks in Azerbaijan, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of treason.
Jafarzade, who is also a Russian citizen, was found guilty of treason in the form of espionage on Thursday. Jafarzade was detained by the authorities in November 2022.
That day, pro-government media reported that the trial had determined that Jafarzade worked ‘in secret cooperation with foreign special services
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said Azerbaijan is taking ‘constructive’ actions to facilitate the right to return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, as evidence mounts of the demolition of residential and cultural heritage buildings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
‘We have repeatedly commented on and emphasised the constructive steps taken by Baku to provide the population that left their native places with the opportunity to return there’, Zakharova said during a press briefing o
Peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be at a standstill as Armenia continues to push for an agreement to be signed ahead of November’s COP29 summit in Baku.
On Tuesday, Sargis Khandanyan, an MP from Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party, told Armenpress that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan offered to organise a meeting to conclude and sign a peace agreement ahead of the summit, which is scheduled to be held in Baku between 11–22 November.
He said that Pashinyan made the offer
Baku’s Yasamal District Court released Mehman Aliyev, head of independent news outlet the Turan Information Agency, from pretrial detention on 11 September, placing him under house arrest. The charges against him are still pending.
