An Azerbaijani journalist with VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Wednesday marked five months since he was detained in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, on charges his employer rejects.
Farid Mehralizada, an economist and journalist for RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, Radio Azadliq, was abducted in Baku by unidentified men on May 30 and has been in pretrial detention since June 1.
“Today marks five months since RFE/RL journalist and economist Farid Mehralizada was unjustly detained in Azerbaijan. We are deeply concerned by his continued imprisonment on false charges,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said in a statement Wednesday.
On June 1, a Baku court placed Mehralizada under pretrial detention for “conspiring to smuggle foreign currency” in connection with a case brought against the independent media outlet Abzas Media.
Then in August, authorities brought new charges against Mehralizada, accusing him of “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion and document forgery.” He faces up to 12 years behind bars for all the charges against him.
RFE/RL has called for Mehralizada’s release.
“We call for his immediate release so he can return home to his wife and newborn daughter,” Capus said in the statement.
On the day of Mehralizada’s initial detention, authorities raided his home and seized a car, a computer and mobile phones, according to RFE/RL.
In September, Mehralizada’s pretrial detention was extended until mid-December.
The indictment, which doesn’t mention Radio Azadliq, also fails to establish a clear link between Mehralizada and Abzas Media. Meanwhile, Abzas Media has said Mehralizada’s involvement with the outlet was limited to offering expert commentary.
Abzas Media is one of the few remaining independent outlets in Azerbaijan. It is known for its coverage of corruption, including allegations linked to the country’s ruling family.
More than a dozen journalists are jailed in Azerbaijan on charges viewed as politically motivated, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. Several Abzas Media journalists are among those jailed.
Twenty-five civil society groups, including CPJ and Reporters Without Borders, have called for all the defendants in the Abzas Media case to be released.
Mehralizada’s jailing underscores the poor state of press freedom in Azerbaijan, where the government has long cracked down on criticism. On the 2024 Global Press Freedom Index, Azerbaijan ranks 164 out of 180 countries in terms of media freedom.
Azerbaijan’s Washington Embassy and Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment for this story.
Azerbaijan’s government has targeted RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service for years.
Radio Azadliq was banned from broadcasting on FM frequencies in 2009, and its Baku bureau was raided and shut down in 2014. The service’s website was blocked three years later in 2017.
Former Bureau Chief Khadija Ismayilova was arrested and jailed for 18 months in 2014, and in 2021, Azerbaijani authorities used Pegasus spyware to target at least five Radio Azadliq journalists, according to RFE/RL.
Mehralizada is one of four RFE/RL journalists currently jailed for their work. The others are Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk in Belarus, and Vladyslav Yesypenko in Russian-occupied Crimea. RFE/RL rejects the charges against all of them as false.
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