Azerbaijan: Adnan Hajizade, Emin Milli appeal rejected

At time of writing, a counter added to the OL! Azerbaijani Youth Movement blog shows that online youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli have been in detention for 14 days now. The two video bloggers were taken into police custody on 8 July on what many consider to be trumped up charges of “hooliganism.”

Despite significant outcry from leading human rights groups, press freedom watchdogs, as well as the international community itself, the two men were sentenced to two months pre-trial detention on 10 July in a court hearing held behind closed doors.

Their appeal, originally planned for last week, was eventually heard on Monday, but few expected the bloggers to be released. In a comment made on my Frontline Club post, Al Jazeera English’s Matthew Collin summed up the mood outside the courtroom.

I was there outside the appeals court in Baku yesterday, and there was a sense of deep sadness among the activists’ close friends that all the international coverage of this case, and the critical statements from European and US officials, hasn’t moved the authorities to drop this case and end what seems to have turned into a global embarrassment for Azerbaijan’s government.

The video report is available on YouTube, and Collin also made his own post on This is Tbilisi Calling. The journalist-blogger noted the feeling of vulnerability among independent voices in Baku.

I’m in Baku to cover the case for Al Jazeera, and people working in what remains of the independent media here in Azerbaijan have been telling me they are increasingly nervous about who the authorities might target next. This is a country where critical journalists have often been jailed, assaulted and even killed, where international broadcasters have been forced off the airwaves, and where television is relentlessly pro-government. Now anti-government bloggers have received what some of them perceive to be a warning not to step out of line too often.

The full post accompanied by video where comments can be left is available on Global Voices Online.