Journalist of "Azadlyg" newspaper beaten in Azerbaijan

In the evening on February 22, at about 6:00 p.m. in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Agyl Khalilov, a reporter of the "Azadlyg" newspaper, was severely beaten.

Azer Akhmedov, director of the newspaper, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the incident took place in the territory of the 6th micro-district in the Olive Grove. The correspondent was filming a moment of illegal deal of selling a land plot located in this Grove. Having noticed the reporter, the participants of the deal detained him and began beating. They took away the case of his photo camera, documents, and then started strangling him with a cord.

According to Azer Akhmedov, the correspondent has a broken finger and serious traumas of his head and body. Khalilov was saved by local residents who came running to his cries and pulled him out of the attackers. The local residents told him that the participants of the illegal deal of selling the land were the officials of the executive power of the Binagadin District and employees of one of the ministries. The journalist has turned to police on the fact of beating.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has informed that Sergey Rozhkov, a journalist from the city of Tuapse in the Krasnodar Territory, was detained at night of February 2 in the house of his relative, when he was preparing a legal protest action. According to the journalist, he was handcuffed, beaten and thrown into the luggage compartment of the militia "Zhiguli" car.

Alexandra Borisenko, inspector of the Tuapse UVD (City Interior Unit) for relations with the media, has completely rejected the facts of Rozhkov's transportation in the luggage compartment and beating. According to her version, the journalist was detained not at home of his relative, but in the street, and the cause of detention was "disorderly conduct (petty hooliganism), disrespect for the public, foul language and resistance to militiamen."