AUG. 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan froze the bank accounts of the Turan news agency, often described as the last independent Azerbaijani news outlet. Media quoted Turan’s managing director, Mehman Aliyev, as saying that the authorities were investigating alleged tax evasion of $22,000. He said that allegations were false.
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(News report from Issue No. 340, published on Aug. 20 2017)
AUG. 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — A CCTV camera on a building in Pavlodar, northern Kazakhstan, captured a near 4 minute-long incident that human rights activists said showed just how brutal Kazakh police are. In the video, three unarmed men appear to resist arrest by at least five policemen. After a tussle, the men are wrestled to the ground beaten with a truncheon, kicked in the head and abdomen and are sprayed in the face with an unknown substance.
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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)
AUG. 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Moscow suspended the extradition of Uzbek journalist Khudberdi Nurmatov after he said that he would be tortured and killed if sent back to Uzbekistan. Mr Nurmatov is openly gay, a crime in Uzbekistan. He was detained by police in July for allegedly breaking immigration rules. He has lived in Moscow since 2011 and has been trying to claim asylum. Uzbekistan has one of the worst media freedom records in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)
AUG. 2 2017 (The Bulletin) — Police in Tajikistan have detained and fined women for wearing hijabs, Islamic headscarves, the Forum 18 News Service reported. Last month, the authorities said they were launching an official campaign against what they described as non-traditional clothing. Forum 18 reported that women have felt “humiliated” for having to remove their headscarves in public.
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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)
JULY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Jamilya Aimbetova-Tokmadi, the wife of the detained Kazakh businessman Murathan Tokmadi, said that her husband had been beaten and forced to sign a testimony that his injuries were linked to a fall from a pull-up bar. The arrest of Mr Tokmadi for various financial crimes in mid- June surprised commentators. The owner of a major glass-making factory in Almaty had appeared on good terms with the authorities before his arrest. The authorities have not commented on the claims.
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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)
JULY 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee accused the Tajik authorities of intimidating 10 relatives of anti- government activists who had taken part in a conference in Germany earlier in the month to mark the anniversary of the the end of the civil war 20 years earlier. HRW said that local officials had threatened the activists with having their property confiscated and banned them from leaving the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)
JULY 20 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced Russian- Israeli travel blogger Alexander Lapshin to three years in prison for illegally entering Nagorno-Karabakh in 2011 and 2012 and for criticising Azerbaijan’s continued claim over the Armenian rebel-controlled area. The severity of the sentence surprised onlookers who had expected Lapshin to be freed under an amnesty. Belarus extradited Lapshin to Azerbaijan in February.
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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)
JULY 26 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Kazakhstan convicted labour union leader Larisa Kharkova of abuse of office, sentenced her to 400 hours of community service and banned her from holding public office for five years. The authorities in Kazakhstan have been cracking down on what they see as troublesome unions. Human Rights Watch said it was “another nail in the coffin of the independent trade union movement in Kazakhstan”.
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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)
JULY 24 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced Faiq Amirli, a member of the opposition Popular Front for Azerbaijan and the financial director of the Azadliq newspaper to three years and three months in jail for inciting religious hatred after he was arrested in 2016 and accused of holding books authored by exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. Turkey has accused Mr Gulen of trying to organise a coup last year and has pressured its neighbours into arresting and deporting his supporters.
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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)
JULY 22 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said that he would hand out free flats to 255 journalists, a move that his detractors have said is nothing short of a bribe. Mr Aliyev previously gave out apartments to pro-regime journalists in 2013. Media freedom watchdogs have described Azerbaijan as one of the worst countries in the world for media freedom.
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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)