Two more Azerbaijani journalists detained as media crackdown continues

Azerbaijan has detained two independent journalists, Ulviyya Guliyeva (Ali) and Ahmad Mammadli, a civil rights activist-turned-journalist. Both journalists were reportedly assaulted by the police during their arrests.

Guliyeva’s mother told OC Media that her daughter was beaten during the detention.

‘She has an adenoma on her head and a police officer hit her on the head. I will never forgive them that they hit my girl on the head. Her house was raided, not [just] raided, completely destroyed. The police confiscated her laptop and found more than €6,000 ($6,820). And I said to the police that if she has such an amount, why does she live in a rented house?’

The journalist shared her flat with her friend, and Ilhama Guliyeva stated that her flatmate was unreachable on Tuesday, suggesting that he might have also been detained.

Guliyeva adds that the police barred her from meeting her daughter, only allowing her to pass meals and water to her.

Guliyeva was later remanded to pre-trial detention for one month and 29 days as part of the case against Meydan TV.

However, Meydan TV’s Orkhan Mammad told OC Media on Wednesday that Guliyeva had never worked with them.

‘We believe that the arrest of Ulviyya Ali, like other imprisoned journalists, is aimed at suppressing freedom of speech. [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev does not want independent journalists in the country. For now she is the 11th person who was arrested in the Meydan TV case and other journalists are innocent and must be released immediately’, said Mammad.

Fargana Novruzova, an independent journalist who took a photo of Guliyeva before appearing in front of the Khatai District Court quoted Guliyeva as saying that ‘Media was handcuffed in Azerbaijan’ while pointing to her handcuffed hands.

Guliyeva was interrogated as part of the case against Meydan TV, despite having been a contributor to Voice of America. She was barred from leaving the country after her interrogation.

Prior to her arrest, Guliyeva prepared a note and asked her friends to share it online in case she was detained.

In the note, Guliyeva wrote that she was innocent, and that she had not smuggled any money into the country. She stressed that she had no business relationship with Meydan TV, adding that even if she did, ‘cooperation with Meydan TV is not a crime’.

‘I would also like to point out that I have been cooperating with the Voice of America for a long time’, she wrote.

‘Our voice will always break the silence in the face of political will that wants to silence Azerbaijan. This may be the last post I write in freedom. But I believe that the righteous voice cannot be silenced. Journalism is not a crime! Our crime is our faith!’, read her note.

Azerbaijan’s arrested several of Meydan TV’s journalists in December 2024, accusing them of smuggling money into Azerbaijan and supporting Armenia.

The case against Meydan TV came as part of an ongoing crackdown on journalists in the country.

‘His face was bruised, and he was tortured with electroshock’

Ahmad Mammadli was also detained on Wednesday.

Mammadli, who used to chair the Democracy 1918 movement, a now-defunct pro-democracy movement in Azerbaijan, has been covering labour and human rights  issues in the country on Facebook and the YouTube channel Yoldash.

Kamran Mammadli, an animal rights activist unrelated to Ahmad Mammadli, said that he had been unable to reach the journalists for hours on Wednesday night.

‘Mammadli and I left the 28 May metro station [centre of Baku] at about 21:50. We calculated that he would arrive home in an hour, at the latest in an hour and a half. We have not heard from him for three hours. Although he had not been called before, he is now receiving calls but not answering them. We think he has been detained’,  Mammadli wrote on social media.

Later, he updated his post saying that Mammadli was brutally detained and was beaten by the police.

Turkan Mammad, the wife of Ahmad Mammadli, also told OC Media her husband was severely beaten.

‘His court process should take place tomorrow morning; his condition is very bad. His face was bruised, and he was tortured with electroshock. When the police asked him for the password to his phone, Ahmad refused. After that, he was tortured with electroshock.’

Mammadli told his wife that he believed he was arrested for his work on Yoldash.

The authorities in Azerbaijan have detained Mammadli several times over the years, most recently in September 2022, after making an openly critical post about Azerbaijani government following its attack on Armenia earlier that month.

Explainer | Meydan TV becomes Azerbaijan’s latest independent media outlet to be repressed

Azerbaijan’s crackdown on independent media continues with the arrest of seven of Meydan TV’s journalists and freelancers on charges of smuggling and supporting Armenia. The campaign against Meydan TV began on 6 December with the arrest of journalist Ramin Jabrayilzada, also known as Deko. According to Jabrayilzada’s lawyer, Nemat Karimov, his client was stopped on his way home from the airport. Police confiscated his funds and claimed he had brought an illicit amount of currency into th

OC MediaAytan Farhadova