Azerbaijan: Activist bloggers face additional charge as trial approaches

At time of writing, according to the OL! blog, youth activist video bloggers Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli have been held in pre-trial detention for 48 days on charges of “hooliganism.” Moreover, despite huge interest in their case from the international media, as well as strong criticism and monitoring from international human rights and freedom of expresison groups, it remains unclear whether they will be freed any time soon let alone be cleared of what many consider to be politically motivated charges.

However, in an unexpected development, Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines reports that rather than drop the action against the detained bloggers, the authorities have decided to add an additional charge of assault even though the alleged victims have so far not come forward to present evidence of their injuries. The blogger says the reason for this is simple.

Hajizade and Milli assaulted no one, she believes, and there are no wounds inflicted on anyone other than themselves, adding that she now also fears the worst.

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