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AZERBAIJAN: Anti-corruption journalists detained for four months

Azerbaijani anti-corruption journalists Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinj Vagifgizi detained for 4 months

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to release Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli and chief editor Sevinj Vagifgizi and to disclose the whereabouts of Hasanli’s assistant, Mahammad Kekalov, who has been missing since Monday.

A district court in the capital of Baku on Tuesday ordered that Hasanli and Vagifgizi remain in custody for four months on charges of conspiring to bring money into the country unlawfully, Abzas Media reported. If found guilty, they face up to eight years in prison under Article 206.3.2 of Azerbaijan’s criminal code.

Individuals in plainclothes who did not identify themselves took Kekalov from his home in Baku on Monday along with his laptop and cell phone, according to news reports and a source familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. As of Tuesday evening, Kekalov’s whereabouts remained unknown.

“The remand terms handed to Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinj Vagifgizi only serve to underline authorities’ real goal, which is to silence Abzas Media’s bold anti-corruption reporting,” said CPJ Advocacy and Communications Director Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, in New York. “Azerbaijani authorities should release Vagifgizi and Hasanli immediately, provide information on Mahammad Kekalov’s whereabouts, and allow Abzas Media to continue its vital public interest reporting.”

Police arrested Hasanli on Monday, November 20, raided his apartment, and searched the Baku office of independent investigative website Abzas Media, where they said they found 40,000 Euros (US$43,770). Officers took a computer, cell phone, iWatch, and hard disk from the apartment and confiscated a microphone and hard disk from the office, Zibeyda Sadygova, the journalist’s lawyer, told CPJ.

Police arrested Vagifgizi at Baku airport at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday as she returned from a work trip abroad and searched her home.

Hasanli and Vagifgizi have denied the charges, calling them retaliation for Abzas Media’s investigations into alleged corruption by relatives of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and state officials. Hasanli said he believes police planted the money in order to fabricate a case, according to a video posted by Abzas Media.

Abzas Media is one of a handful of independent outlets that remain in the country following a series of raids, arrests, and criminal investigations against independent media and press freedom groups since 2014.

In 2021, Vagifgizi was one of several Azerbaijani journalists whose phones were found to be compromised by Pegasus, spyware produced by the Israeli company NSO Group. Hasanli’s name was also on a leaked list of individuals targeted with Pegasus, according to the global investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

CPJ’s emails to the Baku Police Department and the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not receive any replies.

Photo credits: YouTube/AzadliqRadiosu

RUSSIA: 10.5- and 9.5-year prison sentences for two journalists

10.5- and 9.5-year prison sentences for two journalists

CPJ (17.11.2023) —The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the 10.5- and 9.5-year prison sentences issued to journalists Aleksandr Dorogov and Yan Katelevskiy, respectively, on Friday, and called on Russian authorities to release them immediately and not oppose their appeal.

“CPJ strongly condemns the lengthy sentences imposed on Russian journalists Yan Katelevskiy and Aleksandr Dorogov, who have already spent more than three years behind bars on fabricated charges,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities should not contest Dorogov and Katelevskiy’s appeal, release them immediately, and stop jailing independent voices.”

On Friday, a court in Lyubertsy, in the Moscow region, convicted Dorogov, co-deputy chief editor of independent investigative website Rosderzhava, on two counts—extortion committed by a group of persons and extortion in order to obtain property on a particularly large scale— and sentenced him to 10.5 years in prison. The same court convicted Katelevskiy, co-deputy chief editor of Rosderzhava, on one count of extortion and sentenced him to 9.5 years in prison.

Yevgeny Kurakin, chief editor of Rosderzhava, told CPJ that the journalists plan to appeal. In October, the state prosecutor had requested a 12-year sentence for Dorogov and 10 years for Katelevskiy.

The extortion charges stem from a May 21, 2020, complaint filed by a traffic officer, who alleged that he paid Dorogov and Katelevskiy 1.3 million rubles (US$14,400) to stop them from making videos about him, according to human-rights news website OVD-Info. The two journalists had previously published YouTube videos on their channels mocking and criticizing the officer.

The journalists repeatedly denied the charges and claimed that their persecution stems from their investigative work, in particular their joint investigation into alleged corruption between funeral businesses and senior police officials, published on the YouTube account Dvizhenie, which investigates corruption and irregularities by the road police and has about 613,000 subscribers.

Dorogov and Katelevskiy have been in pretrial detention since July 2020, when they were arrested and beaten by police.

CPJ’s email to the Lyubertsy City Court did not receive a response. Russia has imprisoned at least 19 journalists, including Dorogov and Katelevskiy, as of December 1, 2022, when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census.

Photo credits: YouTube/RusNews

ALGERIA: New prison sentence for journalist Mustapha Bendjama

New prison sentence for Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama

CPJ (08.11.2023) – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the additional six-month prison sentence issued to Algerian journalist Mustapha Bendjama on Tuesday, November 7.

“Imposing a new prison sentence on journalist Mustapha Bendjama just when he was due to be released shows how determined the Algerian government is to keep independent journalists behind bars,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Algerian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Bendjama, drop all charges against him, and ensure that journalists in the country can work freely without fear of imprisonment.”

On November 7, a court in the eastern city of Constantine sentenced Bendjama, editor-in-chief of local independent news website Le Provincial, to six months in prison for “committing an illegal immigration crime” for allegedly helping French Algerian journalist Amira Bouraoui flee to France earlier this year, according to news reports. Bouraoui, who is banned from traveling outside of Algeria, denied that Bendjama had any connection to her traveling out of the country.

Bendjama has been in custody since police arrested him on February 8 from his office in Annaba, in northeast Algeria. On August 29, a court sentenced him to two years in prison on charges of receiving foreign funding to commit acts against public order and publishing classified information in a separate case.

On October 26, a Constantine court reduced Bendjama’s two-year sentence to 20 months – eight months in prison and 12 months suspended, meaning he would be released immediately, according to news reports. Instead, Bendjama was held in custody and convicted again on November 7.

CPJ emailed the Algerian Ministry of Interior for comment but did not receive any response.

Photo courtesy of Mustapha Bendjama

RUSSIA: Supreme Court upholds 22-year prison term for journalist Safronov

Russia’s Supreme Court upholds 22-year prison sentence for journalist Ivan Safronov

CPJ (02.08.2023) – In response to the Russian Supreme Court decision on Wednesday to uphold the 22-year prison sentence of journalist Ivan Safronov, who was convicted of treason last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of condemnation:

“The Russian Supreme Court’s refusal to overturn Ivan Safronov’s 22-year prison sentence, while hardly surprising, is nonetheless appalling,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities should drop all charges against Safronov, release him immediately, and stop jailing journalists in connection to their work.”

Authorities accused Safronov, who was arrested in July 2020, of sharing classified information with Czech intelligence. Media reported that the information he had allegedly shared was publicly available, and that his prosecution stemmed from his 2019 reporting on Russia’s sale of fighter jets to Egypt. Safronov, a former correspondent for newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti, has denied the charges. In December 2022, a Moscow court upheld his sentence on appeal. Safronov has now exhausted all possibilities to contest his sentence in Russia, media reported.

In February 2023, he was transferred to a maximum-security prison in Siberia to serve his sentence, media reported. Safronov’s fiancé Ksenia Mironova told CPJ in an email that today’s Supreme Court ruling was expected, “knowing the Russian judiciary.” Russia held at least 19 journalists in prison when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census on December 1, 2022.

Photo credits: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

TURKEY: Turkish authorities detain 5 journalists over tweet, 1 remains in custody

Turkish authorities detain 5 journalists over tweet, 1 remains in custody

Turkish authorities should immediately release reporter Fırat Can Arslan and stop treating journalists like criminals, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

CPJ (26.07.2023) – On Tuesday, July 25, Turkish police detained Arslan, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency, at his house in the capital city of Ankara, in relation to an investigation by the chief prosecutor’s office in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır over allegations that the journalist was “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism,” according to multiple news reports. A court ordered him to be imprisoned pending investigation.

The investigation concerns a tweet Arslan posted on July 18 about the reassignments of a judge and prosecutor who are married to each other and are involved in an ongoing mass trial of journalists in Diyarbakır, according to those sources.

Turkish police also detained four other journalists in different cities for retweeting Arslan’s post: Mezopotamya reporter Delal Akyüz in the western city of Izmir, independent news website T24 editor Sibel Yükler in Ankara, independent news website Bianet editor Evrim Kepenek in Istanbul, and freelance journalist Evrim Deniz in Diyarbakır.

All but Kepenek were released on Tuesday after questioning and remain under judicial control with a foreign travel ban, according to news reports. Kepenek spent one night in jail before being released with the same restrictions on Wednesday, Bianet reported.

“Turkish authorities should immediately and unconditionally release reporter Fırat Can Arslan, who is being detained for reporting on publicly available information and did nothing to ‘make targets’ of anyone,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should cease detaining journalists or raiding their houses as if they are criminals. Posting news on the internet or retweeting it cannot be a crime. All actions taken against journalists in retaliation for their engagement with Arslan’s reporting must be reversed at once.”

During the first hearing of the trial of 17 Kurdish journalists in Diyarbakır earlier in July, it was revealed that the prosecutor who penned the indictment and one of the three judges hearing the trial were married. Arslan tweeted about the couple being transferred to another city from Diyarbakır after it was publicly announced by Turkey’s Board of Judges and Prosecutors, the regulatory body that oversees the appointment, promotion, and dismissal of judges and public prosecutors.

Kepenek was detained at her house in Istanbul in plastic handcuffs, and was later handcuffed as she was brought to the courthouse. Police also raided the houses of Akyüz and Yükler, reports said. Deniz told the Media and Legal Studies Association, a local free expression and press freedom advocacy group, that the Diyarbakır police could not raid her house because they did not know her address.

CPJ emailed the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor’s office but did not receive a response.

The Kurdish journalists on trial in Diyarbakır are facing charges of membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK); if convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison. Turkey was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with 40 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census. Of those, more than half were Kurdish journalists.

Photo credits: Mezopotamya News Agency

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