Azerbaijani journalists are demanding that the authorities report on progress made in the investigation into the murder of Elmar Huseynov, according to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Huseynov, Editor-in-Chief of the opposition news magazine Monitor, was assassinated in Baku in March 2005.
Colleagues of Huseynovhave threatened to stage a demonstration in Baku on January 12. Authorities, however, have refused to authorise the rally.
One of the founders of the Elmar Huseynov Foundation, Shahbaz Huduoglu, told RFE/RL that the group was trying to arrange a meeting with Georgia's prosecutor-general, Zurab Adeishvili, to obtain information on Huseinov's two alleged murderers. Azerbaijani officials say Huseinov was shot dead by two Georgian Azeris who fled the country after the killing. Georgian officials say the suspects are not in their country.
Huseynov was gunned down in his apartment building in capital Baku on March 2, 2005. He was shot several times while walking up the stairwell of his building on way home from work. Huseinov died on the spot, Baku�based news agency Turan reported.
The attack appeared to have been well-planned. Chingiz Sultansoy, deputy director of the Baku Press Club, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that a light at the entrance of the apartment building was not working, and that several telephones in the area had been disconnected at the time of the shooting.
Huseynov's family said the editor had received several threats and was concerned about his security, Sultansoy said. Eynulla Fatullayev, an investigative reporter with Monitor, told CPJ he believed that Huseinov's murder was related to his work.
Monitor had long angered officials with its hard-hitting commentaries. The magazine has been targeted with several lawsuits in retaliation for its critical reporting, and journalists working for the publication have faced a steady stream of harassment from government officials.
In April 2005, the National Security Ministry identified several ethnic Azerbaijanis living in neighbouring Georgia as suspects, but the ministry did not describe any motive or provide any evidence linking them to the crime. Georgian authorities refused to extradite the suspects due to the lack of evidence. Huseynov's family and colleagues criticised authorities for not looking into work-related motives, according to CPJ.
Huseynov's magazine had been critical of Azerbaijani authorities, particularly President Ilham Aliyev. The magazine had on several occasions been closed or fined by courts. His murder came amid a government crackdown on the media and the opposition that followed the presidential polls of October 2003 when Aliyev succeeded his father.
According to RFE/RL, in December 2004 Huseinov spoke about the lawsuits targeting Monitor, accusing authorities of harassing it for political purposes. "I seriously protested, because this is illegal," he said. "This is unambiguously a political order, because two days prior [to that], parliamentary speaker Murtuz Aleskerov in a speech asked the government to express its relation to Monitor magazine and to take serious measures against it. Two days later, court bailiffs are seeking to deny us any profits. And this is simply a political action. What they want is to bankrupt Monitor."
