In a cable released by Wikileaks, a former diplomat at the U.S. In December, a British tribunal heard that in 2015, Ilham Aliyev’s daughters attempted to buy a $80 million London property that would have carried “a significant risk of money laundering.” embassy in Azerbaijan compared father and son to members of The Godfather’s fictional Corleone family. Persecution of dissident voices has long been a feature of the Aliyev regime. Altstadt, who has written several books on Azerbaijan, says the repression worsened after 2010, when the ruling party gained absolute control of the legislature and passed laws that provided a pretext for “tax evasion” charges to be brought against organizations that received foreign grants. “That led to the freezing of institutional and then personal bank accounts of NGOs and media groups,” she says. “The ill-gotten wealth of the ruling family and oligarchs grew and criticism or truth-telling around it was deemed “criminal.””Īmong those facing repercussions was Emin, founder of a free speech advocacy group called Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety (IRFS). A police beating in 2008 had left him with brain injuries, according to a case filed against Azerbaijan at the European Court of Human Rights, and when the government launched another crackdown on dissidents in 2014 he went into hiding, aided by his friend and fellow IRFS journalist Rasim Aliyev. Emin spent 10 months living in Baku’s Swiss Embassy before he flew out with a Swiss government delegation who were attending the opening ceremony of the first European Games. Two months later, Rasim Aliyev died after being beaten in what authorities claimed was an altercation over soccer. “He was murdered and it’s clear to us the investigation was not free and fair,” Emin tells TIME from Geneva. On March 2, the morning of his release, Mehman visited the cemetery where his mother is buried. He also recorded a tribute at the grave of Elmar Huseynov - an outspoken journalist critical of the Aliyev regime, who was gunned down in 2005. An icon of freedom of expression, Elmar had inspired both Emin and Mehman’s careers. “Even though it’s been 14 years since he was murdered, I tried to show to the government nothing will be forgotten,” he says.Stockholm, Febru– Azerbaijan authorities should repeal a newly enacted media law that increases state control of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Tuesday, February 8, President Ilham Aliyev enacted the law “On Media,” which replaces existing laws governing media outlets, according to news reports and a copy of the law, which CPJ reviewed.
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