Player suspended by club during investigation into assault on reporter Rasim Aliyev who condemned his behaviour on social media

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A journalist in Azerbaijan has died in hospital after being beaten up, apparently in response to a Facebook post about a footballer.

Rasim Aliyev died in hospital on Sunday morning after he was attacked by six men on Saturday night.

In an interview before he died, Aliyev claimed he had been invited to meet the football player he had criticised on Facebook. When he arrived at the appointed place, he was assaulted by six people.

But colleagues and rights activists warned that the football story could be a red herring, and pointed to a history of threats and intimidation against Aliyev and the broader climate of fear in Azerbaijan.

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Aliyev had criticised local footballer Javid Huseynov on Facebook. The footballer, who plays for club side Gabala and the national team, had waved a Turkish flag during a Europa League match in Cyprus, and appeared to make an obscene gesture at a Greek journalist who asked why he had done so.

Aliyev’s wrote on Facebook that he did not want someone “so immoral” to represent his country.

In a video interview from his hospital bed after the assault, Aliyev said the player and his relatives had phoned him several times to talk about the post and eventually invited him to drink tea to resolve the incident. However he claimed that when he arrived he was attacked by six people. He died a few hours after giving the interview.

Huseynov, who has not commented on the allegations, has been suspended from his club while the matter is being investigated.

“Despite the fact that Huseynov is a very important player for the Gabala team, he has been suspended from the first team until this issue is clarified,” a statement said.

Rasim Aliyev worked for the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IFRS), a media monitoring group that was shut down last year after its offices were raided and its founder and director Emin Huseynov pursued by authorities. Huseynov took refuge in the Swiss Embassy and was flown out of the country on the plane of the Swiss foreign minister.

Aliyev had been subject to threats and violence before. A video compilation shows the journalist being attacked by police officers at various demonstrations in recent years.

In July, he posted on Facebook to say he was being threatened and intimidated via social media.

The IFRS said Aliyev had formerly appealed to police for protection in the face of threats in recent weeks but had been rejected.

“He was a quiet hero, one of the people who was always there,” said Emin Milli, an opposition journalist who spent time in President Aliyev’s jails, and now lives in Germany, where he runs Meydan TV, an online opposition channel which is hosting Aliyev’s final interview. “When all these things were happening to IFRS, he stayed working for them. He was modest, honest and exceptionally brave.”

In a statement released on Tuesday, the IFRS said that after it was banned last year Aliyev became its chairman, while working as a freelance sports journalist to earn money.



“We express our heartfelt condolences to Rasim Aliyev’s family members, friends, and colleagues, and declare that this murder is a constituent part of Azerbaijan’s government policy of deliberately destroying the country’s civil society and voices of dissent.”

Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev, who is no relation to the journalist, said he was “seriously concerned” by the incident, calling it a “threat to freedom of speech”, according to a local news agency. He has tried to portray the country as a modern, successful state, hosting events such as the recent European Games and luring top architects to build in Baku with the proceeds of the country’s oil windfall.

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But critics say the country is a dictatorial kleptocracy, with a terrible human rights record. The Guardian was banned from entering to cover the European Games after reporting on rights abuses, and local journalists who have looked into corruption in the Aliyev family have found themselves slandered, assaulted or jailed.