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CPJ CONDEMNS PERSECUTION OF AZERBAIJANI HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST GULNARA AKHUNDOVA
18:42 07/11/2014 " REGION
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the harassment by
Azerbaijani officials of the family of Gulnara Akhundova, a regional
expert with the Denmark-based press freedom group International Media
Support (IMS). Akhundova's 67-year-old mother was interrogated on
Wednesday by prosecutors in Baku who raided her apartment the same
day, according to local. The statement is published in the site of
the organization.
According to the statement, Akhundova, who lives in Copenhagen, told
CPJ by Skype, that prosecutors telephoned her mother, Dzhavakhir
Akhundova, and asked her to come to their office in Baku for
questioning. Authorities did not send an official summons.
Prosecutors asked her mother about Akhundova's human rights work,
and made her sign an agreement not to disclose the information to
the public, Akhundova told CPJ. After the interrogation, authorities
searched Akhundova's apartment. Although the authorities did not
confiscate anything, Akhundova's mother and her eight-year-old daughter
were traumatized by the experience.
"Azerbaijan authorities hit a new low in harassing the family of a
government critic. We urge the government to halt its crackdown on
journalists and civil society, and to engage in constructive dialogue
with its critics rather than trying to intimidate them into silence,
" said Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia researcher.
Akhundova told CPJ she believes her family are being harassed because
of her work and a critical statement on human rights and press freedom
abuses in Azerbaijan that she made last week before the human rights
commission with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in
Madrid. Authorities told her mother the raid was part of a wider case
they were investigating against a group of local and international
non-governmental organizations, including IMS.
After Akhundova delivered her statement, Rafael Huseynov, an
Azerbaijani representative on the Council, publicly called her a
traitor and a spy, reports said.
According to the statement, in the past year, Azerbaijan, the
current chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe--the largest pan-European human rights body--has unleashed
an unprecedented campaign of repression against critical journalists
and rights activists, CPJ research shows. More than a dozen reporters
and rights activists are currently held in Azerbaijani jails.
http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2014/11/07/azerbaijan-akhundova/
18:42 07/11/2014 " REGION
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the harassment by
Azerbaijani officials of the family of Gulnara Akhundova, a regional
expert with the Denmark-based press freedom group International Media
Support (IMS). Akhundova's 67-year-old mother was interrogated on
Wednesday by prosecutors in Baku who raided her apartment the same
day, according to local. The statement is published in the site of
the organization.
According to the statement, Akhundova, who lives in Copenhagen, told
CPJ by Skype, that prosecutors telephoned her mother, Dzhavakhir
Akhundova, and asked her to come to their office in Baku for
questioning. Authorities did not send an official summons.
Prosecutors asked her mother about Akhundova's human rights work,
and made her sign an agreement not to disclose the information to
the public, Akhundova told CPJ. After the interrogation, authorities
searched Akhundova's apartment. Although the authorities did not
confiscate anything, Akhundova's mother and her eight-year-old daughter
were traumatized by the experience.
"Azerbaijan authorities hit a new low in harassing the family of a
government critic. We urge the government to halt its crackdown on
journalists and civil society, and to engage in constructive dialogue
with its critics rather than trying to intimidate them into silence,
" said Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia researcher.
Akhundova told CPJ she believes her family are being harassed because
of her work and a critical statement on human rights and press freedom
abuses in Azerbaijan that she made last week before the human rights
commission with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in
Madrid. Authorities told her mother the raid was part of a wider case
they were investigating against a group of local and international
non-governmental organizations, including IMS.
After Akhundova delivered her statement, Rafael Huseynov, an
Azerbaijani representative on the Council, publicly called her a
traitor and a spy, reports said.
According to the statement, in the past year, Azerbaijan, the
current chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe--the largest pan-European human rights body--has unleashed
an unprecedented campaign of repression against critical journalists
and rights activists, CPJ research shows. More than a dozen reporters
and rights activists are currently held in Azerbaijani jails.
http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2014/11/07/azerbaijan-akhundova/