On September 11, the head of online media channel Xural TV, journalist Avaz Zeynalli and lawyer Elchin Sadigov were sentenced to 4-month pre-trial arrest. These arrests became the most talked about and protested ones in Azerbaijan after a relatively silent long period in the country’s political environment. Former political prisoner turned pro-government journalist Eynulla Fatullayev played the main role in their arrests.
Mikroskop Media presents the chronology of how these two people were arrested within 5 days.
Journalist, editor-in-chief of pro-government news site Haqqin.az Eynulla Fatullayev claimed that Avaz Zeynalli received a bribe of 20,000 AZN from the family of the imprisoned businessman Rasim Mammadov, of whom Elchin Sadigov is lawyer . Saying that Zeynalli received that amount so as not to criticize Mammadov, Fatullayev tried to substantiate his claim by releasing a voice recording. In that recording, Zeynalli is heard while sending a message to someone (alleged to be Sadigov) and saying: “There is no problem, if so, let’s meet and I will return the issue,” he says. Eynulla Fatullayev says that the conversation is about the money.
Pro-government news sites like Oxu.az, Baku TV, Baku.ws, Qafqazinfo.az circulated this claim and published articles and videos against Avaz Zeynalli.
At night, Eynulla Fatullayev shared a post on Facebook, writing “the money was returned”.
Avaz Zeynalli joined on a live broadcast on “Xural TV” in the morning and commented on the claims of the past day and denied all of them. According to him, in the audio recording, the conversation is not about money but documents. Zeynalli stated that lawyer Elchin Sadigov gave him important documents related to the criminal case of his client, the former chairman of the Supervisory Board of “Baku Steel Company” Rasim Mammadov, who is currently in prison, and that he was referring to those documents in his voicemail.
Eynulla Fatullayev thanked the head of Real TV Mirshahin Aghayev, the head of Qafqazinfo.az Elbrus Arud, and the member of the Board of Global Media Holding Elnur Abdullayev for their support. Global Media Holding owns Oxu.az and Baku TV media outlets.
On the same day, Fatullayev appealed to the Chairman of the Bar Association Anar Baghirov and asked to remove Elchin Sadigov from the bar. He accused Sadigov of violating law ethics.
Elchin Sadigov shared a post on Facebook and announced that the Prosecutor’s Office came to search his office. After some time, it became known that the search was also conducted in his house, and that Avaz Zeynalli was detained and his office was searched.
After the search, Avaz Zeynalli had the opportunity to make a brief statement to journalists and stated that this is the government’s plan to silence free speech and internet television.
Searches were still ongoing in Elchin Sadigov’s office. When it was over, it turned out that all the documents belonging to the lawyer were confiscated.
Both of them were taken to the Prosecutor’s Office, and a criminal case was launched against them. Both the journalist and the lawyer were charged with the articles of 311.3.3 of the Criminal Code- bribery.
That same night, they were taken to the Binagadi District Court.
The trial that start at around midnight lasted until 5 in the morning. Zeynalli and Sadigov were sentenced to 4-month pre-trial arrest.
