BAKU Reuters - Azerbaijan has charged two more journalists with smuggling, their lawyers said on Thursday, in the latest of a series of arrests that have prompted Western criticism of its human rights record. Courts placed the two journalists, Shahnaz Beylerqizi and Shamshad Aga, under formal arrest on Thursday after they were both detained earlier this week. Both are former employees of Toplum TV, a news outlet at the centre of an investigation into alleged financial crimes, which was shut down in March Nine people were detained that month, including Toplum's founder Akif Gurbanov, on charges including smuggling, moneylaundering and tax evasion.
Beylerqizi's lawyer Bakhtiyar Hajiyev told Reuters that she had been charged with the same offences as the others, though as part of a separate proceeding. She faces up to 12 years in jail. Her husband Ismayil Ayubov told Reuters she was suffering from a number of health problems including hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease and a brain cyst. Aga's lawyer Shahla Humbatova said he had also been charged with smuggling. Prior to the latest arrests, the press freedom group Reporters without Borders said 21 journalists and media workers were detained in Azerbaijan.
The oil-producing country faced heightened scrutiny of its human rights record when it hosted a major U. In December, then-U. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed deep concern about an "increasing crackdown on civil society and media". Baku has angrily rejected Western criticism over the arrests of activists, journalists and government critics, describing it as unacceptable interference. A chilling twist emerged Friday in the death of Adan Manzano, a year-old TV reporter who traveled to cover the Super Bowl but mysteriously died in a hotel room.
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