H.E. Heydar Aliyev
President
Office of the President
Baku
Azerbaijan
Vienna, 24 August 2000
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, strongly condemns the arrest of an Azerbaijani journalist.
According to IPI’s information, on 22 August, Rauf Arifoglu, editor-in-chief of Yeni Musavat, was arrested at his Baku apartment. Police claimed that they found a pistol while searching the apartment and arrested Arifoglu for illegal possession of a weapon. Arifoglu’s driver, Elchin Kelenterli, was also apprehended at the same time. In addition, a cameraman with ANS TV was attacked by police while filming the arrest. Kelenterli was released on 23 August but Arifoglu remains in detention.
Arifoglu’s colleagues claim that police planted the gun to incriminate him. Yeni Musavat is the main opposition newspaper and Arifoglu had announced that he was planning to run for parliament later this year. Prior to his arrest, Arifoglu had been questioned in connection with the highjacking of a plane scheduled to land in Baku. The highjacker had called Arifoglu and outlined his requirements. After this incident Arifoglu was castigated in the official media and accused of aiding a terrorist even though he informed the appropriate authorities of the phone call. The newspaper’s offices were searched the following day, but police failed to find any compromising material.
The arrest of Arifoglu is merely the latest incident in a series of events of government acts of harassment against Yeni Musavat. On 20 August, Etibar Jebrayiloglu, another journalist with the paper was arrested in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic when investigating the highjacking. Jebrayiloglu was released two days later. On 7 February, two high ranking police officers abducted journalist Elbeyi Hassanli from Yeni Musavat’s offices and released him three days later.
It is IPI’s belief that the arrest of Arifoglu and the continuing acts of harassment of the Yeni Musavat is directly related to the newspaper’s opposition stance. Public debate is a fundamental pillar in any democratic society, without it democracy cannot exist. Therefore, a clampdown on the opposition is a clampdown on democracy and on human rights. The arrests of Arifoglu and his colleagues are in gross violation of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Therefore, IPI urges Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure the immediate release of the journalists. IPI also urges Your Excellency to ensure that journalists working in Azerbaijan are allowed to report freely and safely practice their profession.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
