On Friday, Meydan TV’s Baku staff — Aynur Gambarova, who goes by the penname Elgunash, Natig Javadli, Aytaj Ahmadova, also known as Tapdig, Aysel Umudova, Khayala Aghayeva, and freelancer Ramin Jabrailzada, also known as Deko — were detained on charges of smuggling foreign currency.

They were all remanded to the Baku City Police Station facing a common accusation, smuggling, which has repeatedly been used to detain journalists over the past year. 

Meydan TV’s editor, Orkhan Mammad, first broke the news on social media Thursday afternoon after no one had been able to reach any of the Baku staff members for several hours. 

Later that day, the Azerbaijani government-run press agency APA reported that Jabrailzada had been detained on charges of illegally importing foreign currency into the country, and that several others had been arrested along with him.

Later reports stated that he was suspected of smuggling. 

Following these arrests, Mammad shared another post regarding Meydan TV, stating that at least 13 people total had been detained and that several were without a lawyer. 

Besides the six Meydan TV journalists, those detained in connection with the case were photographer Ahmad Mukhtar; Baku School of Journalism’s Deputy Director Ulvi Tahirov; animal rights activist Kamran Mammadli; journalist Rashad Ergun; Yunis Rzayev, who was detained with Aghayeva; and a friend of Umudova’s, Elnur Jabbarzada.

Beaten and refused legal representation

The six journalists confirmed to have been detained were held overnight at the police station, where they were allegedly interrogated without the presence of their lawyers.

According to human rights lawyer Elchin Sadigov, he and his fellow lawyer Zibeyda Sadigova were not allowed to meet with their clients, Aynur Gambarova and Natig Javadli. 

Likewise, Khayala Aghayeva’s lawyer Nazim Musayev told Meydan TV that the police station did not recognise his right to act as Aghayeva’s attorney. According to the investigator, Nahid Abbasli, Musayev had been contracted to be Aghayeva’s attorney four months ago, and therefore could not defend her rights in relation to this case. Musayev emphasised that this reasoning was not legal as someone can decide to hire an attorney at any point. 

Musayev also told Meydan TV that the police ‘psychologically forced Aghayeva to give a statement’, but after Musayev explained to Aghayeva her rights, she took back her statement.

On Thursday evening, Mammad wrote on Facebook that several of the journalists — including Aynur Gambarova, Aytaj Tapdig, and Khayala Aghayeva — had their homes raided and their personal items, such as laptops and cameras, confiscated. He also claimed that during the raid, Gambarova, who is disabled, was beaten. 

Jabrailzada also appeared to have been beaten, showing bruises around his eyes. He was not able to contact a lawyer for several hours after his arrest on charges.

Journalist Aysel Umodova was the last of the six journalists to be detained, having been arrested in the Shabran district, around 130 kilometres from Baku. 

According to her lawyer Agil Layij, Umodova’s blood pressure rose rapidly during her subsequent interrogation, and an ambulance had to be called. Her health status is unknown at this time. 

The last wave of a brutal crackdown on Azerbaijan’s independent media

Following the arrest of their employees, Meydan TV issued a statement, writing that ‘since the day we started our activities over a decade ago, our brave journalists have been arrested, and they and their families have been subjected to persecution. Journalists who cooperate with us have been illegally banned from leaving the country, and have been surveilled by Pegasus spyware, among other forms of pressure.’

They highlighted that the crackdown on Meydan TV began in 2015, with the media website officially banned in Azerbaijan in 2017.

‘Our goal has always been to be an independent and alternative media organisation in Azerbaijan, informing our audience daily. The pressures and accusations against us since our establishment are groundless, and these novel attacks will neither silence us nor stop our work,’ the statement concluded. 

According to Gulnoza Said, the Europe and Central Asia programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, the detention of the Meydan TV journalists just after the end of COP29 ‘is a sign of Azerbaijani authorities’ intention to continue the brutal media crackdown and a slap in the face of both the UN and democratic governments who just went to Baku to shake hands with Azerbaijani officials’.

‘Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release Natig Javadli, Khayala Aghayeva, Aytaj Tapdig, Aynur Elgunesh, Aysel Umudova, and Ramin Deko, along with more than a dozen other leading journalists arrested on retaliatory charges in recent months, and end their unprecedented assault on the independent press’, Said said. 

The latest and perhaps final wave of Azerbaijan’s crackdown on independent media began one year ago with the raid on independent media outlet Abzas Media’s offices and the detention of seven of their journalists and employees. Since December 2023, all of their staff have been given travel bans.

In March of this year, around five journalists working for Toplum TV were detained.

Like Meydan TV journalists, those detained over the last year have all been accused of smuggling foreign currency.