The Grave Crimes Court in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, sentenced Polad Aslanov, the chief editor of the independent news websites Xeberman and Press-az, to 16 years in jail on the charge of high treason, his wife Gulmira Aslanova told the Committee to Protect Journalists via messaging app and the media reported. Aslanova told CPJ he planned to appeal the verdict.
“Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release journalist Polad Aslanov and not contest his appeal,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “By jailing a critical journalist on trumped-up charges, Azerbaijan is only cementing its reputation as one of Eurasia’s leading jailers of journalists.”
The country’s security service officers detained Aslanov on June 12, 2019, at a border crossing along with his wife and daughter, when they attempted to enter Iran for a friend’s wedding, Aslanova told CPJ at the time. The journalist’s wife and daughter were later released, but Aslanov was charged with high treason for allegedly selling state secrets to Iran, according to news reports and CPJ research. Aslanova told CPJ today that at the court hearing, which was held behind closed doors, Aslanov denied the charges and said they were in retaliation for his reporting on official corruption’, CPJ reported.
Polad Aslanov says Azeri security service arrested him for his reporting on allegations that its officials extorted money from a tourist company organizing pilgrimage trips to holy sites in Iran.
A few days after Aslanov’s detention, which had taken place on June 12, 2019, a head of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan was replaced with Ali Naghiyev, a chief of anti-corruption agency. He had served as a deputy of now defunct Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security, whose head Eldar Mahmudov had been dismissed followed by arrests of its top officials.
The State Security Service of Azerbaijan, which succeeded the abolished MNS, as the country’s major security agency, was headed by Madat Guliyev in 2015, chief of the Azeri prison system and deputy justice minister. However, according to the Azeri media, Madat Guliyev also was dismissed due to his incompetency as a top security chief.
Ali Naghiyev, who is said forced to leave MNS due to his conflict with the former Eldar Mahmudov, is considered as a professional, while facing corruption allegations in international media.
Apparently, change of heads in the Azeri security agency did not affect Polad Aslanov’s case, probably because those officials within the body, who were offended by his reporting could keep their positions and power.
