Azerbaijan has charged at least three exiled critics, including journalists and politicians, with making calls for violence against the state, in what appears to be an intensifying campaign against critics residing abroad.
Among those to have been charged or summoned were historian Altay Goyushov and politician Arastun Orujlu.
According to Meydan TV, Goyushov resides and works in France — he was ordered into pre-trial detention in absentia in February on charges of making open calls of violence against the state. Earlier in November, he was summoned by the Prosecutor General’s Office in order to be ‘acquainted’ with the charges pressed against him.
Orujlu, who lives in the US, was accused of making calls for mass unrest, as well as violence against citizens and the state.
Goyushov has not commented on reports of his summoning, but Orujlu said on social media that he was open to answering all questions and comments. According to RFE/RL, Orujlu stressed that he had never made any calls for a coup or rebellion in Azerbaijan.
‘On the contrary, I have always said that this is bad’, Orujlu said, adding that ‘talking about the rule of law in Azerbaijan is nonsense. We’ve seen for years the crimes committed in Azerbaijan and how those who commit them are rewarded’.
On Monday, pro-government media outlet Qafqazinfo reported that Ganimat Zahidov, an exiled journalist living in France, had also been summoned by the Prosecutor General in order to be informed of the charges pressed against him of making open calls of violence against the state on 11 November. The Sabail District Court had ordered him into four months pre-trial detention.
‘According to the indictment, on 4 and 18 July, 2018, Zahidov posted open calls for violence against the current government, formed and operating legally in Azerbaijan, on YouTube’, Qafqazinfo wrote.
Journalist Beydulla Manafov and YouTuber Vagif Allahverdiev — both of whom live in the US — have also been summoned for questioning by the Prosecutor General.
Manafov’s questioning was scheduled to take place on 20 November, and was related to accusations of having made statements or committed acts aimed at inciting racial, social, or religious hatred and enmity.
In response, Manafov posted on social media saying that he had never been an Azerbaijani citizen following the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
‘I was a resident of the Azerbaijan SSR, but not a citizen. Since 1997, I have been a US citizen’.
According to pro-government media outlet Okhu, Allahverdiyev was also charged and detained in absentia in February on charges of incitement of violence against the state.
On 13 November, Azerbaijan’s Public Television also named Sevinj Mirzayeva (Osmangizi), a journalist residing in the US and the founder of the YouTube-based Osmangizi TV, as having been charged with making similar calls.
Speaking to RFE/RL, Mirzayeva said that the charges did not come as a surprise to her.
‘If you run a YouTube channel, if you’re on air every day and touch on the regime's interests, you’re a potential target’, she said, adding that she denies the charges. She additionally stressed that people executed during the Soviet Union’s purges were later found to be innocent.
‘One day we, too, will be acquitted on this Public Television. Because we, our imprisoned journalists, are innocent’, Mirzayeva said.
In addition to summoning critics, Azerbaijan has also begun issuing extradition requests.
Qazetci, a news page on Facebook, wrote that the Swiss Federal Ministry of Justice rejected the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office to extradite blogger Manaf Jalilzada to Azerbaijan. The agency had accused Jalilzada of inciting violence against the state on 27 February.
The Swiss ministry explained its refusal to extradite Jalilzada saying he could be subjected to torture and his right to a fair trial could be violated in Azerbaijani custody.
Jalilzada told Qazetci that the charges against him were unfounded. The social media page later speculated that he was charged as a result of a protest he held in front of the Palace of Nations in Geneva on 19 November 2022.
Aytan Farhadova
