Another journalist arrested in Azerbaijan on charges of smuggling
Political arrests in Azerbaijan
Another journalist, Shamo Eminov, who cooperated with Kanal 13 Internet TV has been arrested in Azerbaijan. This is the third journalist arrested from the same editorial office. The channel’s anchor was arrested in early December under administrative procedure. The head of the channel, who was first arrested on charges of illegal construction, is now charged with smuggling.
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Shamo Eminov, who cooperated with YouTube project Kanal 13, was arrested for 3 months and 5 days under Article 206 (smuggling) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.
Eminov was detained on December 22, his wife Durdana Eminova said. In the evening of the same day a search was conducted at their home.
“On December 22 morning, Shamo left the house to go for an interview. Later, I left the house and went to visit my daughter. In the evening, I received a call from the police that they had my husband and asked me to bring his diploma. When I returned home to get my diploma, I saw that everything in the apartment was scattered and my husband’s laptop was missing. It turned out that a search had been conducted,” Eminova said.
She said that for five days she could not discover her husband’s whereabouts. According to her, only on December 26, Eminov called for 2-3 minutes and said that he was accused of “smuggling” and the court chose a preventive measure against him in the form of arrest for 3 months and 5 days.
“But he did not commit any crime, he is not guilty of anything,” the journalist’s wife said.
Aziz Orujev, head of Kanal-13, was arrested a month ago. He was first charged with “illegal construction of a house” and then with “large-scale smuggling by prior conspiracy.”
According to Anar Orujev, Aziz Orujev’s brother and Kanal-13 director who is abroad, the channel’s anchor Rufat Muradly, who is serving an administrative arrest, has also been criminally prosecuted in Aziz Orujev’s case.
Rufat Muradly was arrested on December 2 for 30 days under Article 535.1 (failure to obey lawful demands of the police) of the Code of Administrative Misdemeanors.
However, Nazim Musayev, Rufat Muradly’s lawyer, said he had no information about the criminal prosecution of his client. According to the lawyer, he met Muradly in the detention center yesterday, and the latter also told him nothing about any criminal charges against him.
Muradly’s term of administrative arrest ends on January 1.
This is the ninth journalist arrested since the end of November 2023. It all started with the arrest of the management of the independent online publication Abzas Media. In this case, at the moment five of them – editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifkyzy, director Ulvi Hasanly, his deputy Mohammed Kekalov, reporter Nargiz Absalamova and investigative journalist Hafiz Babaly are under arrest. All of them are accused of smuggling by prior conspiracy.
Then three Kanal 13 employees were arrested, as well as one independent journalist, Teymur Kerimov.
