Affiliated media: Turan, Information agency

Incident date: September 11, 2017

Attack type:

• Criminal/administrative prosecution excluding (1), (2) and (3)

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: BBC

Location: Azerbaijan, Baku

Additional information:

In August the Azerrbaijani tax ministry opened a criminal case against the independent information agency "Turan". On 24th August the agency's director Mekhman Aliev was arrested for tax evasion and remained in detention until 11th September. He denied all accusations against him. He said that in the few months before his arrest, the structure he led had been subject to tax inspections which were not legally sanctioned. According to Aliev, the main reason for his arrest was to disable the "Turan" agency. Following serious international pressure he was freed on 11th September. On 2nd November all accusations against "Turan" were dropped.