Stockholm, March 11, 2024\u2014Azerbaijani authorities should release Toplum TV\u2019s founder Alasgar Mammadli and journalist Mushfig Jabbar, drop all charges against the independent news outlet\u2019s staff, and allow the media to work freely and without reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On March 6, dozens of plainclothes police officers in the capital, Baku, raided Toplum TV\u2019s editorial office at around 1:30 pm, confiscated its equipment and the phones of all staff who were present, and took at least 10 of them to Baku City Police Department for questioning, according to news<\/a> reports<\/a> and Toplum TV\u2019s chief editor, Khadija Ismayilova, who spoke to CPJ by phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of the journalists were freed at around midnight except for video editor Jabbar, reporter Farid Ismayilov, and social media manager Elmir Abbasov, according to Ismayilova, a multiple<\/a> award-winning<\/a> investigative journalist, who was jailed<\/a> from 2014 to 2016<\/a> in retaliation for her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The police claim to have found 3,200 euros (US$3,500) in Jabbar\u2019s apartment, 3,100 euros (US$3,390) in Ismayilov\u2019s apartment, and 2,700 euros (US$2,950) in Abbasov\u2019s home, according to the regional news website Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 8<\/a>, the Khatai District Court in Baku ordered Jabbar to be detained for four months pending investigation on currency smuggling charges, while Ismayilov and Abbasov were released on bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also on March 8, plainclothes police arrested Toplum TV\u2019s founder Mammadli and took him away in an unmarked vehicle as he left a clinic where he was receiving treatment for suspected cancerous tumours, according to multiple<\/a> media<\/a> reports<\/a> and footage<\/a> of the arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 9<\/a>, the Khatai District Court ordered Mammadli \u2014 who is also the founder of Media Rights Group, a local press freedom NGO \u2014 to be detained for four months pending investigation on currency smuggling charges, after police said they found 7,300 euros (US$7,970) in cash in his apartment, those sources said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The journalists have denied the charges<\/a>, which are punishable by up to eight years in prison under Article 206.3.2 of Azerbaijan\u2019s criminal code<\/a>, and said that the police planted the money<\/a> in their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFollowing similar attacks on Abzas Media and Kanal 13, the raid on Toplum TV and arrest of its journalists indicate that Azerbaijani authorities are intent on eradicating the last vestiges of the country\u2019s independent press. Reports that police detained the outlet\u2019s founder Alasgar Mammadli while he was receiving treatment for suspected cancer are particularly outrageous,\u201d said Gulnoza Said, CPJ\u2019s Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator in New York. \u201cAuthorities in Azerbaijan should immediately release Mammadli and Jabbar, drop all charges against Toplum TV staff, and stop retaliating against independent media for their reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third media outlet to face smuggling charges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Toplum TV is one of the last significant independent media outlets in the country, reporting on politics, investigations<\/a> into official corruption, and allegations of voting irregularities<\/a> during February\u2019s presidential elections<\/a>, in which President Ilham Aliyev won a fifth term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the third independent news outlet in Azerbaijan to face currency smuggling charges in recent months, as relations decline<\/a> between Azerbaijan and the West. Since November, six members<\/a> of anticorruption investigative outlet Abzas Media<\/a> and two journalists with independent broadcaster Kanal 13<\/a> have been detained after authorities accused them of illegally bringing Western donor money into Azerbaijan <\/p>\n\n\n\n Azerbaijani authorities have not publicly accused Toplum TV of illicit Western funding but the\u00a0state-affiliated<\/a> Azerbaijani Press Agency<\/a>\u00a0reported that Toplum TV illegally received half a million dollars from Western donors to foment unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the initial arrests of Abzas Media staff in November, pro-government media that Ismayilova has said<\/a> are acting on instructions from Azerbaijani authorities have repeatedly<\/a> claimed<\/a> Toplum TV and Ismayilova represent another Western-funded \u201cnetwork of subversion\u201d and were misleading<\/a> young journalists<\/a> into anti-state activity ahead of the February elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly after the police raid, Toplum TV\u2019s Instagram account was deleted and its YouTube channel<\/a> was renamed and all of its content deleted, Ismayilova said, adding that this \u201cshows authorities\u2019 real intention,\u201d which is to \u201csilence any platform where criticism is expressed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Toplum TV\u2019s office remains sealed by police, who have yet to return any of the outlet\u2019s confiscated equipment or journalists\u2019 phones, she said, describing the charges against Toplum staff as \u201cabsolutely absurd.\u201d None of the searches of journalists\u2019 homes were conducted with lawyers present as police denied entry to some, Ismayilova told CPJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CPJ\u2019s email requesting comment on the case from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, which responds on behalf of the police, did not immediately receive a reply.<\/p>\n\n
\r\nThis content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
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