Azerbaijani Profile: Elmar Huseynov
Friends of Azerbaijan will be profiling important or influential Azerbaijani figures. Our first profile looks at Elmar Huseynov, an award winning independent Azerbaijani journalist well known for his critical reporting of current president Ilham Aliyev and his father and predecessor, Heydar Aliyev. Elmar Huseynov was murdered in 2005 after continuous resistance to pressure by the government to halt his oppositional reporting.
Elmar began his journalistic career writing for a Russian newspaper Zerkalo, later on setting up the news and media publication Monitor which became known for angering officials with it’s critical commentary and soon came under close watch of the government.
The magazine was targeted with several lawsuits in retaliation for its critical reporting, and journalists working for the publication faced a steady stream of harassment from government officials. Articles of particular concern by authorities highlighted human rights, torture in Azerbajani prisons following a recent prison riot, and the plight of the army.
In 1998 Elmar was convicted for “insulting the nation” and forced to close the news publication when he found himself unable to pay the fine.
On March 3rd 2005 Elmar Huseynov was shot dead outside his apartment. He was reportedly shot seven times and many national journalists condemned the murder as an act of ’state terror’.
The murder came just two days after two other opposition journalists said they had been detained and beaten up by police.
Reporters Without Borders have been one of the international organisations campaigning for the Azerbaijan Government to fully investigate and publish in a public arena the findings of the case. They released an investigation report showing that the murder of Elmar Huseynov, editor of the independent weekly Monitor was a contract killing ordered because of his work as a journalist
In 2008, Amnesty International reported that three years on from the murder of Elmar Huseynov, Azerbaijan continues to to imprison journalists for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression. Despite the release of five journalists in December 2007, others remain behind bars in cases which human rights activists in the country consider politically motivated.
We will continue to update this page with further information in dedication to the work of Elmar Huseynov and all journalists and individuals in Azerbaijan working for free speech in their country.
Resources:
BBC reporting the murder of Elmar Huseynov
Committee to Protect Journalists, profile from CPJ’s global campaign against impunity
Reporters Without Borders Report
