A little more than just obscene hand gesture

So turns out soccer player Javid Huseynov whose name is directly linked [for now at least] to the death of journalist Rasim Aliyev didn't just wave a Turkish flag at the game between Azerbaijan's Gebele and Cypriot Apollon Limassol game on August 6. 

There were already tensions before the game between the teams and special requests were made to keep the tension low and hope for a friendly match. 

That didn't happen. 

One rumor circulating online was that at some point during the game Apollon's fans allegedly attempted at burning down Azerbaijani flag. 

Then there is the player Javid's pumped fist right after his score during penalty time.

Also, as if the fist wasn't enough, Javid waved the Turkish flag during the game. And when a local journalist asked about the flag Javid snapped, making another gesture and leaving hastily. 

Apollon Limasson hoped that UEFA will ban the player and punish the team but no such thing happened. Javid remained on the team while the team itself didn't get even a warning. Just a little side not here: Azerbaijan is preparing to host UEFA European under 17 Championship in 2016 and is bidding to host and on September 19th 2014, the Baku Olympic Stadium won the right to host one of the quarter-final matches and three group stage matches of Euro 2020 which will unfold across 13 UEFA member countries. Not to mention its other sporting events the country is ready to host.

But back to Rasim's case there are few more interesting details.

While Rasim was at the hospital Javid and the team's manager came to visit him. Javid said the person who called Rasim had no relationship to him but when Rasim asked "how come he knew that we just talked over the phone" the soccer player was stuck. When the police walked into the hospital room for questioning the two left the room immediately. 

Then there is the interview with Rasim's girlfriend who said that the whole medical report presented by the hospital doctor is fake. And here is why: 

"The doctor claims Rasim was taken into surgery 8pm local time. But we talked on the phone at 8.10 local time [either our surgeons are using the state of the art operating technology - which would still make an operation under 10 minutes purely impossible - or they have developed some kind of super human powers - but that too is irrelevant since they would at least be able to fake the report better]. 

The doctor also said Rasim as admitted to the hospital at 7pm, but that is also not true because already around 6 Rasim called me. He told me that he is at the hospital and that I should tell his parents". 

The whole hospital scene raises many questions and not just the timing. 

Rasim suffered from for broken ribs, and ruptured spleen. He was bleeding internally but no one seemed to be too keen on conducting thorough body examination. He was then placed in a normal hospital room, without any doctor supervision only pumped with painkillers. 

So it was natural that hours after the sedation of painkillers was gone Rasim was in much pain. 

According to Rasim's girlfriend and friends who were with Rasim at the hospital at the time, he was taken into operating room only at around 2am after which it was too late to do anything.  

So who is responsible? 

Probably not just the doctor, the soccer player and his relatives. 

Rasim was threatened before. On July 26, he asked for help via Facebook having faced threats online and not knowing what to do. Despite his appeal for help and protection, police refused to help.

In the meantime, Limassol team issued a statement, expressing deep sorrow adding the following:

“Unfortunately, our fears and deep concerns, regarding the unsportsmanlike behaviour of Javid Huseynov, which we conveyed in the most official way to the European Football Association after the first match in Cyprus in July 30, were confirmed in the most tragic way”.

Since the murder, Javid Huseynov was finally detained on August 11 and is charged with "withholding information while knowing of murder". If convicted the soccer player is facing fine in the amount of 5,000AZN and could be jailed for 2 or 3 years. Yes, just that - a man's life is lost, gone forever, and all the soccer player is getting is that.

Stay tuned for more updates on the case.  

Keep calm and stop worrying, President Aliyev will get to the bottom of it

President Aliyev, said he is going to closely follow up the murder of Rasim Aliyev. This is perhaps worst development because now that its president who is personally involved in the case, I fear, there wont be any justice. 

On August 10, Aliyev's aid, Ali Hasanov said "Ilham Aliyev sees the death of the journalist as direct threat and intimidation to freedom of speech and information as well as free press". 

Just for your information, President Aliyev promised to find the perpetrators when another journalist Elmar Huseynov was murdered in 2005 (just two years after Aliyev's election as the country's president). Then in 2011 when yet another journalist, Rafig Tagi died following fatal stabbing no progress was made into his case either. 

I fear President Aliyev's hearty message is a signal of yet another murder case go down in history as mystery. 

But if President Aliyev really wants to solve this mystery all he needs to do is let freedom of press, speech, and information really exist in Azerbaijan and independent journalist do their job without constant threats and beating from the police and thugs. 

Or he should simply ask himself a very basic question - when was the last time he met with independent press and why one of the country's most prominent journalists while following her right to speech freedom and freedom of information is currently on trial. Or why, do we have journalists and bloggers in jail? 

It is time to take responsibility for direct actions. Rasim's murder is the result of President and his aids' irresponsible way of ruling this country amid the atmosphere of fear, intimidation, and mafia like leadership.

IRFS statement on the death of journalist and colleague Rasim Aliyev

Just received this statement. Sharing the full version below.

August 10, 2015

Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety is in shock over the murder of our longtime employee and board member, current Chairman Rasim Aliyev. On August 8, 2015, unknown persons beat Aliyev to within inches of his life. He died several hours later in a hospital after doctors failed to provide necessary medical treatment. 

We express our heartfelt condolences to Rasim Aliyev’s family members, friends, and colleagues, and declare that this murder is a constituent part of the Azerbaijan’s government policy of deliberately destroying the country’s civil society and voices of dissent. Azerbaijani physicians could have easily saved Aliyev’s life, but they refused to objectively diagnose him or place him under serious medical supervision in the intensive care unit. 

Aliyev’s death coincided with the one year anniversary of the government’s closure of IRFS, including the human rights-focused online TV project “Obyektiv TV.” On August 8, 2014, Azerbaijan law enforcement confiscated all of IRFS’ equipment and documents, sealed the organization’s office shut, and sought to imprison IRFS founder and chairman Emin Huseynov. As one of IRFS’s most trusted and loyal colleagues, it was Rasim Aliyev, using his personal vehicle, who escorted Emin Huseynov out of the vicinity and to temporary safety while law enforcement raided IRFS’ office. 

In October 2014, Rasim Aliyev was elected as IRFS’ chairman, to replace Huseynov. The protocol for this election was sent to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Justice. Basically, Aliyev took it upon himself to lead IRFS through the organization’s most difficult time, when it was in effect paralyzed by never-before-seen levels government pressure. 

Rasim Aliyev’s murder took place amidst the backdrop of a crushing, unbearable human rights situation in Azerbaijan. Since mid-2014, the government has stopped the work of all independent non-governmental organizations and confiscated their property, and thrown countless human rights defenders who are critical of the government behind bars. 

Over the last two years, journalists, human rights defenders, and other individuals critical of the Azerbaijan regime, including Anar Mammadli, Leyla Yunus, Rasul Jafarov, Intigam Aliyev, Seymur Hezi, Khadija Ismayilova, Ilgar Mammadov, Tofig Yagublu, Jadigar Sadigov, Hilal Mammadov, and Arif Yunus have been imprisoned on trumped up charges. 

 Leyla and Arif Yunus, and several other imprisoned Azerbaijani prisoners of conscience are at death’s door. Imprisoned on false charges and deprived of proper medical care, they are slowly dying in prison under circumstances much like those that killed Azerbaijani Talysh rights advocate and journalist Novruzali Mammadov. Furthermore, these individuals are being subjected to torture, and cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. Potentially deadly attacks have been organized in prison against Azerbaijani prisoners of conscience including Ilgar Mammadov. 

Although the Azerbaijan government is unable to throw into prison Azerbaijani dissidents who have asylum abroad, it imprisons their Azerbaijan-based relatives on false charges. A shining example of this is the recent imprisonment of relatives of journalists Emin Milli and Ganimat Zahidov. In further revenge, the government has barred opposition journalists, NGO workers, and their relatives from leaving the country. By holding the relatives and colleagues of foreign-based Azerbaijani dissidents hostage in Azerbaijan and threatening to murder them, the government attempts to stop these people from criticizing it. Azerbaijan-based relatives of the country’s exiled dissident are forced to renounce and publicly condemn their relatives. 

Over the last three weeks, Rasim Aliyev received numerous threats via phone and the internet. Although he formally appealed to the police for protection, they rejected his request. 

 Rasim Aliyev’s case is not the first in which a journalist or human rights activist has been killed after a failed, premediated attack, due to gross negligence of the law enforcement agencies and physicians. Through such incidents Azerbaijan’s authorities deliberately and openly show the public that a journalist who survives an assassination attempt will not be permitted to survive, but instead die slowly and painfully in a hospital. 

On November 22, 2011, Rafig Tagi died in the same hospital where Rasim Aliyev died, after an attempt on his life. Alternative investigations conducted by journalists showed that although physicians could have saved Tagi, they instead created conditions for his death based on orders from higher up in the country’s government. Four years later, Rasim Aliyev has died under the same circumstances. 

Over the last 10 years numerous journalists, including Elmar Huseynov, Rafig Tagi, Novruzali Mammadov, and Alim Kazimli, have been murdered, but not even one of these has been solved. On the contrary, Azerbaijani law enforcement impedes the objective investigation of these murders, preventing the murderers from being exposed and prosecuted. 

Today Azerbaijan has become one big prison. While all dissidents may not actually be in prison, they live with the constant knowledge that at any moment they can be entrapped and jailed, or murdered. All independent NGOs in Azerbaijan have basically been forced to cease their activities, the last few remaining opposition publications face closure, and journalists self-censor themselves out of fear for their own lives. Basically, the print media is under complete government control, and there is not a single independent television or radio station in the country. Leading international journalism and human rights organizations rate Azerbaijan among the most repressive and dangerous countries in the world. 

Human rights defenders, journalists, dissidents, and even representatives of international governmental organization and diplomatic missions in Azerbaijan operate in under pervasive, increasingly intrusive surveillance. One day prior to Rasim Aliyev’s murder, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications revealed plans to propose legislation that will increase government control and surveillance over online apps such as WhatsApp and Skype, and to require online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to maintain databases of Azerbaijan-based users which the government has access to. Through Rasim Aliyev’s murder the Azerbaijan government will further attempt to justify all-encompassing internet surveillance and regulation. 

Tendencies over the last 10 years show that murders of journalists, increasing repression, and the arrests of dissidents unfold within the framework of important political events, including elections. Rasim Aliyev’s murder in the run-up to the Fall 2015 parliamentary elections, much like the murder 10 years ago of journalist Elmar Huseynov in the run-up to the 2005 parliamentary elections, confirms this. Elmar Huseynov’s murderers and the people who ordered his murder remain at-large to this day as a result of deliberate law enforcement inactivity. In 2010, Huseynov’s family appealed to the European Court of Human Rights over this still unsolved murder. Last month, the ECtHR started communication regarding the case, requesting materials of the criminal case from the Azerbaijani government. 

 IRFS declares Azerbaijan’s incumbent government bears full responsibility for the murder of Rasim Aliyev and the atmosphere of intolerance and impunity within which his murder occurred. 

IRFS calls on the government of Azerbaijan to put an end to the cruel and insufferable repression against dissident voices. Furthermore, IRFS calls on the government to arrest and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those responsible for the deaths of not only Rasim Aliyev, but also Elmar Huseynov, Rafig Tagi, Novruzali Mammadov and Alim Kazimli. The government must release all prisoners of conscience, including, first and foremost, those imprisoned journalists and human rights defenders whose lives are in danger. 

IRFS calls on the United Nations, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and European Union, to show their principal support for the victims of Azerbaijan’s repression by holding Azerbaijan accountable for fulfilling its international obligations the sphere of human rights. 

***Rasim Aliyev (left, in yellow Press vest) was born on August 16, 1984. On August 16, 2015, he would have turned 31. He was a graduate of the State Oil Academy. Rasim Aliyev resided with his elderly parents, but was engaged to be married and in the process of planning a wedding. He worked for IRFS since 2007. In addition to his parents and fiance, Rasim Aliyev is survived by one sister.

Man down (Updated)

The soccer player Cavid Huseynov will be spending his time on the bench until there is thorough investigation into his role in the murder of Rasim Aliyev.

Huseynov's cousin, is detained.

Police claims they know the identities of others involved in the beating.

At least this time police is doing something, or is pretending to do something. Or is the sudden "progress" is the result of public outcry? After all, we have seen this happen before. Not so long ago, just few months back with the fire that killed 15 people in Baku, it was the outcry on social media platforms first that made the government "really" look into the case. Not that it did much but at least it pretended to. So its pretending to do something now too.

It is a matter of time for us to see what this pretending will all come down to...

In the meantime, RIP Rasim.

***
Rasim had no idea an invitation "to talk over a misunderstanding" will end so tragically. For him. He was beaten, threatened before. He was an independent journalist working in Azerbaijan, what can you expect after all?! Of course these were the norms, the usual part of the package that came when one signed up to be an independent journalist in a country like Azerbaijan.

Rasim died at the age of 31 this morning at a hospital. He died because someone miscalculated their strength and beat him "too much", "too tough", for far too long. But surely they had no intention of killing him. At least this is what the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor Office claims. In their official statement they say it was "intentional infliction of body harm, resulting in death". No one seems to mention that Rasim's murderers stole his wallet, his phone. No one counts the fact that the man died after all and that surely someone who calls you swearing at you in the first place and then invites you "to talk it over" wont have the best intentions in mind? 

No, these are not the questions asked. Because who cares about yet another journalists' life end abruptly? Before his time! Before all the things he could do in his life?  

So far, neither the soccer player, nor the cousin who called and swore at Rasim and then invited him for tea have come forward or said anything. Will they come forward or are they shitting their pants? Or perhaps they are not shitting their pants because they will never be caught and most likely someone else will face the court and get a sentence? 

The truth is Rasim died. Because he was allowed to get beaten and murdered. Because this is what Azerbaijan has become. Lack of education, lack of rule of law, lack of justice and transparency, brutality and aggression - its safe haven for criminals, thugs, to do what they like and that includes government representatives too by the way.

Who knows who will be next...