The Baku Appellate Court has denied an appeal by seven imprisoned journalists who were sentenced as part of the case against Abzas Media, including RFE/RL’s Farid Mehralizada. The decision of the judge was met by journalists with slogans, placards, and a poem.
RFE/RL reported that the sentence handed down by the Baku Court of Grave Crimes in June remained in force following the court session on Tuesday.
During the court hearing, female journalists Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifgizi), Nargiz Absalamova, and Elnara Gasimova protested by holding posters that read :‘Ilham Aliyev, declare your income!’ and ‘Journalism is not a crime, corruption is a crime!’.
Employees of the penitentiary services and court bailiffs took away the posters from the imprisoned journalists, after which chaos erupted in the courtroom.
Abzas Media wrote that after the slogans, the journalists recited a poem from the works of Azerbaijani poet Mammad Said Ordubadi.
‘Don't enter the arena of freedom with oppression!
Take over all the countries, strike the whole world,
Throw people into prison, drive the wicked to war!
But know this: whatever you do, you also will feel it.
One day, you will cry out in pain’.
RFE/RL noted that as chaos arose in the courtroom, bailiffs removed those who came to watch the trial.
Yadigar Sadigli, a member of the opposition 3rd Republican Platform, stated on Facebook that he also attended the Court of Appeal hearing on Absaz Media.
‘When the judges came to announce the verdict, the girls unfurled banners and chanted slogans. The judge muttered something and left. Then the guards declared that all the verdicts handed down by the court of first instance remained in force’.
A public activist who attended the session told OC Media on the condition of anonymity that court bailiffs checked the IDs of spectators, wrote down their names, and asked who among them were close to the imprisoned journalists.
Aytan Farhadova
Absalamova receives reward for courageous reporting
As the court denied the journalists’ appeal, Abzas Media’s Absalamova was honoured by the Fritt Ord Foundation and the ZEIT Stiftung Bucerius with the Free Media award ‘for her courageous reports and short documentaries’.
‘She has dedicated herself to covering climate issues, corruption, and social rights in particular. Her camera has been confiscated by the authorities and she has been subjected to police brutality on a number of occasions’, read the statement issued by the Fritt Ord Foundation.
Abzas Media was the first media organisation to be targeted by Azerbaijan’s latest crackdown on media and civil society. Their senior staff were arrested in November 2023, with other members of the team, including Absalamova, later being detained. The authorities later detained RFE/RL’s Mehralizada as part of the case in May 2024 — despite not having worked for Abzas Media.
The outlet’s director Ulvi Hasanli, investigative journalist Hafiz Babali, Mehralizada, and editor-in-chief Abbasova were sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of smuggling foreign currency as a group and money laundering. Journalists Absalamova and Gasimova were sentenced to eight years, and Mahammad Kekalov, a coordinator at Abzas, was sentenced to seven and a half years of prison.
Aytan Farhadova
