Amnesty International– Independent Azerbaijani journalist Aziz Orujov has been held in detention on fabricated charges since 2 May. He is being kept in inhumane conditions. On 23 July he fainted as a result of the sweltering heat in the prison cell.
He is a prisoner of conscience and must be immediately released. Aziz Orujov, a journalist running an independent online TV channel, Kanal, was arrested on 2 May while on his way to work. The police officer who stopped them claimed the journalist looked like a wanted fugitive, and arrested him. The same day, Aziz Orujov was remanded in pre-trial detention under a 30 day administrative detention order for purportedly disobeying a police officer’s legitimate orders. On 2 June, when his administrative detention order was due to expire, new fabricated charges of illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of official powers, under Articles 192 and 308 of the Criminal Code respectively, were brought against him. Aziz Orujov was remanded to four months of detention and remains in
On 2 June, when his administrative detention order was due to expire, new fabricated charges of illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of official powers, under Articles 192 and 308 of the Criminal Code respectively, were brought against him. Aziz Orujov was remanded to four months of detention and remains in Kurdakhany pre-trial detention centre, on the outskirts of Baku. The charges relate to him being the co-founder of the Caucasus Media Investigations Centre Public Union, an organisation he founded in 2006 with his brother and sister-in-law. The prosecution claims that from 2006 to 2014 the organisation received around AZN 193,000 in grants from various donors, and failed to register the grants and pay AZN 8,000 in tax. Registration and taxing of grants only became mandatory in February 2014 when legislative amendments entered into force, but the authorities have applied these retroactively to intimidate, harass, arrest and prosecute a number of government critics from independent media outlets and NGOs.
The nature of the charges, as well as the circumstances surrounding his arrest, suggest that Aziz Orujov has been targeted by the authorities for his critical reporting. Aziz Orujov shares a small cell with another detainee. The temperature in Baku is currently upwards of 35 degrees centigrade. There is no air conditioning, or any other form of ventilation in the cell. While the cell has access to a small balcony and there is a small window, when Aziz Orujov complained about the heat and asked the guards to let him access to the balcony or let him open the window they refused. On 23 July he fainted as a result of the heat. On 24 July he was allowed to make his first phone call to his family, but three to four minutes into the call, while he was telling them about the insufferable heat and his fainting incident, the prison administration ended it. Only Aziz Orujov’s two lawyers have been able to meet him since his detention. The authorities have denied his family access.