Azerbaijan jails 7 journalists in latest media crackdown on free speech

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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Azerbaijan on Friday convicted a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist and six others on multiple charges, handing down prison sentences ranging from 7 1/2 to nine years in prison, RFE/RL and local media reported.

The verdict against RFE/RL’s Farid Mehralizada and six journalists from Abzas Media, an independent Azerbaijani investigative outlet, marks the latest escalation in the country’s crackdown on media. All seven journalists have dismissed the charges as politically motivated and linked to their journalism. International rights groups have called for their release.

Mehralizada, an economist who works for RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani service, was sentenced to nine years in prison, the broadcaster reported. Nine-year sentences were also handed to Abzas Media’s director Ulvi Hasanli, chief editor Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqizi) and investigative journalist Hafiz Babali.

Reporters Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova were sentenced to eight years in prison, and deputy director Mahammad Kekelov to 7 1/2 years, Abzas Media said.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the sentences as “outrageous” and “the outcome of a purely political trial based on fabricated charges, aimed at silencing voices that expose corruption and injustice.”

“The Azerbaijani authorities may imprison journalists, but they cannot imprison the truth,” RSF editorial director Anne Bocandé said Friday. “RSF calls for the immediate release of all Abzas Media defendants and urges international actors to intensify pressure on Baku.”

RFE/RL chief executive Stephen Capus said Mehralizada had been “unjustifiably detained” and called for his release.

“Farid has already lost a great deal. Unjustifiably detained for more than a year, he missed the birth of his child and now waits for elusive justice. Denying this man his fundamental rights is unnecessarily cruel. Instead of perpetuating this sham, it’s time to reunite Farid with his family,” Capus said in a statement.

‘A chilling message’

Amnesty International said the case against Abzas Media was “an example of how Azerbaijan’s judicial system is being weaponized to muzzle independent journalism”.

“By pressing fabricated economic charges against journalists who exposed high-level corruption, the Azerbaijani authorities are sending a chilling message to anyone in the country who dares to challenge them,” Marie Struthers, Amnesty’s regional director, said in a statement, urging “a strong international reaction.”

Six Abzas Media journalists were arrested in November 2023. The authorities claimed that they had found 40,000 euros in cash in the outlet’s office in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, and accused them of conspiring foreign currency into Azerbaijan.

Mehralizada was arrested in May 2024 as part of the same case, even though both him and Abzas Media said that he never worked for the outlet. Later that year, authorities levied additional charges against Mehralizada and Azbas Media journalists, including illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, document forgery and others.

In his closing statement to the court, which RFE/RL shared with The Associated Press, Mehralizada said that “the truth is that I have not committed any crime…Independent media is one of the greatest means of service to the state, the nation, and humanity. Unfortunately, journalism in our country today is almost equated with terrorism.”

Media crackdown

Weeks before Mehralizada’s arrest, in March 2024, Azerbaijani authorities targeted another news outlet, Toplum TV, with raids and arrests on similar charges. In December 2024, six more journalists were arrested on smuggling charges, including five working for the independent Meydan TV news outlet.

Earlier this year, press credentials were withdrawn for Voice of America and Bloomberg and the BBC’s office in Azerbaijan was shut down.

RFE/RL’s bureau in Azerbaijan was shut down in 2014, and its domestic website was blocked in 2017. But the Azerbaijani service has continued to operate despite the restrictions and pressure from the authorities, Alsu Kurmasheva, an RFE/RL journalist involved in the news organization’s press freedom advocacy efforts, told AP.

Kurmasheva, who was arrested in Russia in October 2023 and released in the unprecedented East-West prisoner swap last August, called the case against Mehralizada “a very unjust action against a journalist” and “a political decision,” symptomatic of how press freedom is treated by authorities in countries like Azerbaijan or Russia.

“Authorities there don’t believe in journalism as a profession, this is what I learned from my experience,” she said. “They see journalists as agents of some secret services of different countries.”