Tweet
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #750
Aug 30 2014
Azeri Journalist Beaten Unconscious
Police in Nakhichevan shrug shoulders as calls for accountability mount.
By Afgan Mukhtarli - Caucasus
An assault in which an Azerbaijani journalist and NGO activist was
badly beaten is being seen as the latest in a series of attempts to
silence government critics.
Ilgar Nasibov's wife Malahat blames the local authorities in
Nakhichevan, an exclave region separated from the rest of Azerbaijan
by Armenian territory. She believes they were annoyed by his work on a
controversial case involving a death in custody.
On August 21, Nasibov was attacked by several people inside the
Resource Centre for NGO Development and Democracy which he heads.
`He was called from home to go the office in the evening,' Malahat
Nasibova told RFE/RL radio's Azerbaijani service. `They said some
petitioners had come. They attacked him suddenly in the office and
inflicted numerous injuries.'
Nasibov was found unconscious, with his jaw, cheekbone and nose
broken. He had suffered concussion and had been stabbed with scissors
several times, requiring stitches when he was taken to hospital.
Malahat Nasibova links the attack to her husband's work on the case of
Turaj Zeynalov, a man who died while being held by the security
service on an allegation of spying for neighbouring Iran. Nasibov had
helped Zeynalov's family, who believe he was murdered, bring a
complaint at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.
`After the communications phase [between court and state] of the Turaj
Zeynalov case began at the ECHR, the authorities began being even more
aggressive towards us,' Malahat said. `About a month-and-a-half ago,
Ilgar was knocked down by a car. He was only slightly injured so we
didn't publicise it. In our view, the latest attack on Ilgar was
pre-planned¦ and designed to kill him.'
International watchdogs have urged the Azerbaijani government to find
and punish the perpetrators.
`I call on the authorities to conduct a swift and thorough
investigation of this brutal attack on Nasibov and bring those
responsible to justice,' OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
Dunja MijatoviÄ? said in a statement. `This criminal act has an
enormous chilling effect on free expression and free media and it
could inspire future crimes against members of the media.'
The secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe
Deloire, said that if it turned out that the authorities were behind
the attack, `an unacceptable threshold will have been crossed in their
attempts to silence the last critical voices in Azerbaijan'.
For their part, the authorities are either ignoring or dismissing the issue.
Neither the regional government nor the security service in
Nakhichevan has commented on allegations of official involvement.
The regional interior ministry branch did put out a statement saying
its police had investigated the case and offering a completely
different account.
It quoted a witness statement from a man called Farid Askarov, who
told police that on the night in question, he met up for a few drinks
with Nasibov, an `old friend' . One thing led to another, and they had
a fight.
Malahat Nasibova disputes that her husband was friendly with Askarov,
and points out that there were not one but several attackers present,
who ransacked and smashed the office as well as carrying out the
assault.
Mehman Aliev, the head of Turan, an independent news agency for which
both Ilgar and Malahat Nasibov have written, sees the attack as part
of a wider pattern of repression.
`The arrests of Emil Mammadov in Salyan, Hasan Huseynli in Ganja,
rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunusov, Rasul Jafarov, Intiqam
Aliyev, journalist Rauf Mirqadirov and others, plus the enforced
closure of NGOs is all part of Azerbaijan government policy,' he said
`It's just that in Nakhichevan, the process is rougher.' (Azerbaijan
Tidies Away Human Rights Critics is IWPR's most recent round-up of the
wave of detentions.)
A leading media watchdog in Azerbaijan, the Institute for Reporters'
Freedom and Safety, asked why the Council of Europe (CoE) was doing
nothing about the situation.
`This attack is a wake-up call to all those who value freedom of
expression, in particular the Council of Europe,' it said in a
statement.
Azerbaijan is a member of the council, which calls itself Europe's
`leading human rights organisation'. At the moment, it also holds the
six-month rotating chair of the CoE's Committee of Ministers.
The group accused the CoE of continuing to `turn a blind eye to a
brutal human rights crackdown coinciding with Azerbaijan's
chairmanship', and failing to condemn the government `for a series of
outrageous crimes against human rights'
Afgan Mukhtarli is a reporter for www.civil-forum.az.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/azeri-journalist-beaten-unconscious
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #750
Aug 30 2014
Azeri Journalist Beaten Unconscious
Police in Nakhichevan shrug shoulders as calls for accountability mount.
By Afgan Mukhtarli - Caucasus
An assault in which an Azerbaijani journalist and NGO activist was
badly beaten is being seen as the latest in a series of attempts to
silence government critics.
Ilgar Nasibov's wife Malahat blames the local authorities in
Nakhichevan, an exclave region separated from the rest of Azerbaijan
by Armenian territory. She believes they were annoyed by his work on a
controversial case involving a death in custody.
On August 21, Nasibov was attacked by several people inside the
Resource Centre for NGO Development and Democracy which he heads.
`He was called from home to go the office in the evening,' Malahat
Nasibova told RFE/RL radio's Azerbaijani service. `They said some
petitioners had come. They attacked him suddenly in the office and
inflicted numerous injuries.'
Nasibov was found unconscious, with his jaw, cheekbone and nose
broken. He had suffered concussion and had been stabbed with scissors
several times, requiring stitches when he was taken to hospital.
Malahat Nasibova links the attack to her husband's work on the case of
Turaj Zeynalov, a man who died while being held by the security
service on an allegation of spying for neighbouring Iran. Nasibov had
helped Zeynalov's family, who believe he was murdered, bring a
complaint at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.
`After the communications phase [between court and state] of the Turaj
Zeynalov case began at the ECHR, the authorities began being even more
aggressive towards us,' Malahat said. `About a month-and-a-half ago,
Ilgar was knocked down by a car. He was only slightly injured so we
didn't publicise it. In our view, the latest attack on Ilgar was
pre-planned¦ and designed to kill him.'
International watchdogs have urged the Azerbaijani government to find
and punish the perpetrators.
`I call on the authorities to conduct a swift and thorough
investigation of this brutal attack on Nasibov and bring those
responsible to justice,' OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
Dunja MijatoviÄ? said in a statement. `This criminal act has an
enormous chilling effect on free expression and free media and it
could inspire future crimes against members of the media.'
The secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe
Deloire, said that if it turned out that the authorities were behind
the attack, `an unacceptable threshold will have been crossed in their
attempts to silence the last critical voices in Azerbaijan'.
For their part, the authorities are either ignoring or dismissing the issue.
Neither the regional government nor the security service in
Nakhichevan has commented on allegations of official involvement.
The regional interior ministry branch did put out a statement saying
its police had investigated the case and offering a completely
different account.
It quoted a witness statement from a man called Farid Askarov, who
told police that on the night in question, he met up for a few drinks
with Nasibov, an `old friend' . One thing led to another, and they had
a fight.
Malahat Nasibova disputes that her husband was friendly with Askarov,
and points out that there were not one but several attackers present,
who ransacked and smashed the office as well as carrying out the
assault.
Mehman Aliev, the head of Turan, an independent news agency for which
both Ilgar and Malahat Nasibov have written, sees the attack as part
of a wider pattern of repression.
`The arrests of Emil Mammadov in Salyan, Hasan Huseynli in Ganja,
rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunusov, Rasul Jafarov, Intiqam
Aliyev, journalist Rauf Mirqadirov and others, plus the enforced
closure of NGOs is all part of Azerbaijan government policy,' he said
`It's just that in Nakhichevan, the process is rougher.' (Azerbaijan
Tidies Away Human Rights Critics is IWPR's most recent round-up of the
wave of detentions.)
A leading media watchdog in Azerbaijan, the Institute for Reporters'
Freedom and Safety, asked why the Council of Europe (CoE) was doing
nothing about the situation.
`This attack is a wake-up call to all those who value freedom of
expression, in particular the Council of Europe,' it said in a
statement.
Azerbaijan is a member of the council, which calls itself Europe's
`leading human rights organisation'. At the moment, it also holds the
six-month rotating chair of the CoE's Committee of Ministers.
The group accused the CoE of continuing to `turn a blind eye to a
brutal human rights crackdown coinciding with Azerbaijan's
chairmanship', and failing to condemn the government `for a series of
outrageous crimes against human rights'
Afgan Mukhtarli is a reporter for www.civil-forum.az.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/azeri-journalist-beaten-unconscious