Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BAKU469
2006-03-28 10:19:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baku
Cable title:  

AZERBAIJAN OPPOSITION JOURNALIST CONTINUES

Tags:  PHUM KDEM PGOV PREL AJ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3990
PP RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHKB #0469/01 0871019
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 281019Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BAKU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9965
INFO RUCNOSC/ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN EUROPE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAKU 000469 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/24/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PGOV PREL AJ
SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN OPPOSITION JOURNALIST CONTINUES
RECOVERY FROM ATTACK


Classified By: ADCM JOAN POLASCHIK FOR REASONS 1.4 B AND D.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAKU 000469

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/24/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PGOV PREL AJ
SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN OPPOSITION JOURNALIST CONTINUES
RECOVERY FROM ATTACK


Classified By: ADCM JOAN POLASCHIK FOR REASONS 1.4 B AND D.


1. (C) SUMMARY: On March 24 PolOff visited Fikret Huseynli, a
journalist for the opposition Azadliq newspaper (the
mouthpiece for Ali Kerimli's Popular Front Party) to
investigate his reported March 5 assault. Huseynli, who
appeared to be recovering from an attack, claimed that
high-level GOAJ officials had ordered the attack in
retaliation for his reports on corruption. Police officials
tell us they are investigating the case; it is unlikey that
we will be able to definitively verify wht happened. We
will continue to press this mattr with the GOAJ to ensure
that a thorough and fair investigation takes place and that
freedom of the press is protected. END SUMMARY.

AZADLIQ JOURNALIST DESCRIBES HIS ATTACK
--------------


2. (SBU) In a March 24 meeting, Azadliq newspaper journalist
Fikret Huseynli and his editor briefed poloff on the March 5
assault on Huseynli. Azadliq invited four or five local
press to the meeting, all of whom later reported poloff's
visit in an attempt to generate more interest in Husyenli's
case. Huseynli said that on March 5 around 10pm, he was in a
suburb on the outskirts of Baku where he was grabbed and
hauled into a back street, hit with a rubber baton, tied up
and thrown into a car. He said that he lost consciousness at
that point, which he attributed to an injection of some sort
that he received. Huseynli showed PolOff two marks on the
inside of his right arm: one a line below the elbow that
could have been used to tie off his arm, the other a small
circle halfway in between his wrist and elbow that he claims
is a mark from the injection. Huseynli said doctors have not
been able to identify the substance with which he claims to
have been injected. Huseynli said he was beaten while
unconscious, causing injury to his kidneys, and when he
awoke, he was in a dark street and two strangers slit his
throat. (Huseynli had two bandaids underneath his chin.) He
claims the assailants tried to murder him but he fought back,
scaring off the assailants. He said he crawled to the

highway and managed to flag down a taxi, which took him to
the hospital.


3. (SBU) At the hospital, Huseynli told the staff merely that
he had "fallen down," because of the number of people,
including police, at the hospital after he arrived. He said
the staff was hesitant to help him and a number of people
showed interest in listening to what he had to say. Huseynli
said he was afraid he would receive further injuries if he
told the details of what happened to him. Huseynli's editor
took him home after the hospital treated him and he has
continued to receive care at home, with occasional hospital
visits, since that day. Huseynli said that police have
questioned him about the attack both at home and in the
police station.

JOURNALIST COMMUNITY FEARS CONSPIRACY
--------------


4. (SBU) The opposition journalists present during the
meeting said they believed the attack was ordered from a
high-level GOAJ official to stop Huseynli from writing about
GOAJ corruption. Huseynli's editor claimed that Huseynli was
the only writer brave enough to continue naming names
following the murder of prominent journalist Elmar Huseynov,
and that he wrote about too many GOAJ officials to know which
one could have been responsible. (Note: Contrary to these
claims, other journalists in fact continue to do so,
including the full color magazine Hesabat, which began
publishing in summer 2005 with a cover story on the 30
richest men in Azerbaijan). Huseynli's editor said that he
sees conspiracy with the authorities in the fact that no
television station has covered the attack on Huseynli; the
editor stated that only a high-placed GOAJ official could put
such pressure on TV stations to censor the attack on one of
their colleagues. (Independent TV station ANS has in fact
covered both sides of the incident in its news program).
Civil society and opposition activists have also denounced
this as an attack on freedom of the press and an attempt to
silence another independent/opposition journalist. Huseynli
said that after Elmar Huseynov's murder he began receiving
anonymous phone calls threatening him to stop his work and
that through third parties, the authorities are offering him
bribes to stop his investigative reporting. (Huseynli is not
the first to make either of these claims).

COMMENT
--------------


5. (C) It was quite evident that the meeting, attended by
members of the local press who wanted the conversation to
take place on the record, was somewhat staged for PolOff's

BAKU 00000469 002 OF 002


benefit. While Huseynli likely was attacked that night and
may well have been attacked because of what he wrote, there
is no clear evidence to support or refute his claim. Police
officials have told us only that the investigation is
continuing; they are unlikely to come up with concrete
answers. We will continue to press this matter with the GOAJ
to ensure that a thorough and fair investigation takes place
and that freedom of the press is protected.
HARNISH