Committee to Protect Journalists Calls for Release of Critical Journalist in Azerbaijan

On Monday, December 4, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged Azerbaijan to release Raft Muradli, a critical journalist, and to end the repression of independent media in the country. Raft Muradli, a popular presenter on the internet channel Channel 13, was arrested on Saturday on charges of 'minor hooliganism' and 'disobeying police orders' in Baku. According to news reports and a copy of the court ruling reviewed by the Committee to Protect Journalists, this journalist was sentenced to 30 days in prison on the same day for these charges. Anar Aroujov, the editor of Channel 13, told the Committee that Muradli has not accepted the charges against him. He added that the accusations against this journalist are 'absolutely unfounded' and part of the ongoing crackdown by Azerbaijani authorities against Channel 13 and other independent media. Muradli's arrest occurred four days after authorities ordered Aziz Aroujov, the director of Channel 13 and Anar's brother, to be held in pre-trial detention for three months on charges of illegal construction. His lawyer stated that Aziz Aroujov's detention was retaliation against him for his journalistic activities. According to Carlos Martinez de la Serna, the program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, Raft Muradli is the sixth journalist to be arrested in Azerbaijan in the past two weeks. He described the charges against Muradli and his colleagues as 'fake' and 'a pretext' for their detention, urging Azerbaijani authorities to release these journalists and end the repression of independent media. Human rights organizations have reported that Azerbaijani authorities often use baseless charges of 'hooliganism' against government critics, especially journalists.