Detained Meydan TV journalists refuse meetings after jail builds glass partition in visiting room
Several detained journalists from the Azerbaijani independent media outlet Meydan TV have announced that they will not see their visiting relatives in protest against the installation of a glass partition in visitation rooms.
Three of the outlet’s journalists, Aytaj Ahmadova (Tapdig), Aysel Umudova, and Khayala Aghayeva, have vowed not to see their families until the partition is removed.
Ahmadova’s family wrote that she told them that they ‘were being threatened through their relatives’.
‘This is also a form of torture. All this pressure is related to our testimony in court. Moreover, they say they’ve cancelled open meetings not only for us but for all prisoners. In protest against this new pressure we’re facing, we refuse to meet with them through the glass partition’.
Meydan TV also reported that Guliyeva told her family that she was threatened after speaking about how Ahmadova, Aghayeva, and Umudova were subjected to physical and verbal abuse by Javid Gulaliyev, the detention centre’s deputy head.
‘During the search, our airing was turned off. Nevertheless, I heard the screams of journalists, who were being held in the neighbouring cell. Gulaliyev spoke to them very rudely and unethically. I heard that they were subjected to abuse’.
Meydan TV reported that Ahmadova told her family about the abuse, claiming that Gulaliyev told them ‘his sperm is everywhere in this prison’, and that ‘he is covered in blood up to his throat’.
On 23 February, Guliyeva’s voice recording was shared on social media. She added that her cell had also been searched.
Two days later, Elnur Ismailov, the head of the detention centre, met with Guliyeva.
‘They asked me if my fiancé generated these voices. I replied that I wasn’t stupid enough to let someone in the country manage the page’, Guliyeva told her family.
Later, Ismailov again warned Guliyeva, telling her that he knew her fiancé had made the recording, and if he did not stop, he also would be detained.
The increased repression against the Meydan TV journalists began after they started a protest during court hearings.
The protests began after judge Aytan Aliyeva did not allow the journalists to leave the glass holding cell and sit next to their lawyers while delivering their defence statements on 13 February. Aliyeva also suddenly left the court in the middle of the hearing.
‘During this trial, we were subjected to physical violence under the direction of the deputy head of the pre-trial detention facility, Gulaliyev. I hereby declare that both the head of the pre-trial detention facility, Elnur Ismailov, and Javid Gulaliyev are minor pieces on the chessboard. The order to resort to violence does not come from them, but from Ilham Aliyev, from the Presidential Administration’, Ahmadova stated in court during the most recent hearing on 20 February.
The journalists also addressed the Prosecutor General’s Office and Public Defender to monitor the situation, but did not receive a response.
Prison repression spreads to politicians
Zamin Salayev, a member of the opposition Popular Front Party (PFP), who is serving in Correctional Facility N.11, was placed in solitary confinement on Friday.
The independent media outlet Toplum TV reported that Salayev told his family on 26 February that his health was in poor condition.
‘He added that it appears they want to place him in solitary confinement, but there are no issues with the facility administration; the order came from somewhere else’.
Salayev was sentenced in February 2023 on charges of ‘hooliganism committed with the use of an object used as a weapon’ — he has denied all accusations.
Previously, on Wednesday, Nigar Hazi, the daughter of imprisoned politician Tofig Yagublu, stated on social media that Yagublu had begun a hunger strike on 22 February in protest of similarly being placed in solitary confinement.
Hazi noted that her father would stay in solitary confinement for one week.
‘President Ilham Aliyev takes revenge on Tofig Yagublu and other political prisoners about the bitter reality he faced in Washington. This behaviour towards Yagublu is clear bias and vengeance on Aliyev’s part’, she wrote, hinting that the punishment stemmed from her brother Rahim Yagublu’s participation in a recent protest in Washington. The protesters were assaulted by Aliyev’s security detail at the time.
Aytan Farhadova
