Editor-in-chief of "realliq.info" website detained in Azerbaijan

Ikram Ragimov, the editor-in-chief of the "realliq.info" website has been detained in Baku. According to the advocate Elchin Sadygov, he was detained by agents of the State Security Service (SSS) of Azerbaijan.

On October 26, Ragimov arrived at the office of the "Turan" News Agency, where he told Mekhman Aliev, the director of the agency, that his car was blocked by unknown people on the highway near the "Askyuryu" Restaurant, but he managed to break away from his pursuers.

Ragimov said that he was persecuted for publishing an open letter criticizing Ali Gasanov, the presidential aide on public and political policy issues.

In his open letter to Ali Gasanov, posted on October 26, Ikram Ragimov stated that the funds allocated for financing mass media from the State Media Support Fund were used by Gasanov to create his controlled media, and the recipients of the aid lost their editorial independence. Ragimov asserts that Gasanov provided some of the apartments in the houses built for journalists, to people from his closest retinue, their relatives and friends.

At the exit from the agency, at about 4:50 p.m., Ragimov was detained by his pursuers and taken away in a car.

"Immediately after Ikram came out, four people in civilian clothes approached him, took him by his arms, put him in a car and drove away to some unknown place. They didn't even introduce themselves," Ragimov's colleague told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

At about 9:00 p.m. local time, the advocate Elchin Sadygov reported that Ragimov was detained by SSS agents.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 27, 2018 at 03:01 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.