On May 8, independent journalist Aytan Mammadova was attacked by an unknown person as she entered the elevator of her building. The assailant pointed a knife on her throat, according to Mammadova, and said, “You didn’t understand?”. Mammadova told reporters that the man threatened her to stop reporting on a court case which he didn’t specify.
What we know about the assailant: Mammadova says that the assailant was a middle-aged man. She supposes that he threatened Mammadova over articles she wrote about the notorious murder case of a 10-year-old girl named Narmin Guliyeva.
Reaction of police: The journalist was invited to Baku City Main Police Department next morning. She was informed that “certain steps were taken to investigate” the threat.
Is criminal case launched? Yes. A criminal case was launched on charge of “threatening with killing or severely damaging life” at Baku’s Binagadi District Police Department. Spokesperson of the Interior Ministry wrote on Facebook that investigations are going on on the case.
About Narmin Guliyeva case: Guliyeva was found dead in a village in western Azerbaijan’s Tovuz city in 2019, two months after she went missing. Ilkin Suleymanov, a fellow villager who found the corpse and reported to the police, was detained and accused of plotting the crime. Suleymanov and his family told the court trial that he was tortured for days to give consent to taking the charges. Aytan Mammadova is one of the journalists that has been closely tracking the case.
The reaction of the public: Journalists and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan released a joint statement to demand a fair investigation into threat against Mammadova and find those responsible for the attack.
