Turkey deports journalist who is then arrested in Azerbaijan
An Azerbaijani journalist who was deported from Turkey on Saturday (19 April) was arrested on his arrival at the airport in Baku, the Azerbaijan capital. Two days later, Rauf Mirgadirov appeared before a court and was remanded in custody for three months pending trial on espionage charges. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 10 years to life in jail.
He has been visited in the remand prison by two human rights activists who said he was being treated with respect and has been provided with a lawyer. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Turkey’s deportation of Mirgadirov and his immediate arrest “bears the hallmarks of a coordinated operation that violates international law.”
Mirgadirov had lived in Turkey with his family since August 2010, working as the Ankara-based correspondent for two independent Azerbaijani newspapers, Ayna and Zerkalo. He fled Azerbaijan because of threats as a consequence of his critical political reporting.
His Turkish lawyer said Mirgadirov was suddenly told by the Turkish authorities in early April that his accreditation, which had been valid until the end of 2014, had been cancelled. He was given two weeks to leave the country.
HRW noted that his accreditation was cancelled shortly after Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had been to Baku to meet the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev.
To comply with the Turkish order to leave, Mirgadirov, with his wife and family, boarded a bus for the neighbouring state of Georgia. They were detained on the bus, suggesting that they had been under surveillance, and put on a plane to Baku.
Mirgadirov’s lawyer told HRW that the espionage charges against Mirgadirov stem from his trips to Armenia, Georgia, and Turkey in 2008 and 2009.
“The context and timing of Mirgadirov’s arrest suggest that the case against him is politically motivated and intended to punish him for his outspoken views and to send a chilling message to others that dissent will not be tolerated,” said an HRW spokeswoman.
Sources: Today’s Zaman/APA/ HRW
APakistani TV station with millions of viewers, Geo News, is under threat of closure by the government.
It followed the broadcasting of allegations that the country’s spy agency, Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), was responsible for the attempted murder of the Geo News anchor Hamid Mir.
Mir is in hospital after being shot by a gang of men on 19 April near Karachi airport. After the shooting, his brother, Amir, was interviewed on Geo News and accused the ISI of being responsible for the attack. He claimed that ISI’s leader, General Zaheerul Islam, had plans to assassinate Hamid.
Pakistan’s defence ministry responded by accusing Geo News of “false, malicious and irresponsible reporting” that is “a continuation of the policy of the Geo Network for maligning state institutions.”
Defence minister Khawaja Asif then asked the country’s broadcasting regulator, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), to find a way of closing down Geo News (an affiliate of CNN).
The Karachi-based news channel has millions of Urdu-language viewers around the world. And Mir hosts one of its most popular programmes, Capital Talk.
A former newspaper editor and reporter and editor, Mir still writes columns as well as broadcasting. Mir has previously written about alleged ISI involvement in the disappearances of people.
Two former Pakistani governments - once in 2007 and again in 2008 - banned him from appearing on Pakistani television.
There have also been reports this week that Geo News has been blacked out in large swathes of Peshawar and parts of Quetta.
Benjamin Ismaïl, a spokesman for the press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, said: “The broadcast by Geo News of an interview with the victim’s brother does not constitute an offence... We caution the authorities against taking any action against Geo News or its presenter, Hamid Mir.”
Sources: Reporters Without Borders/CNN