Baku: photographer Etimad Budagov accuses Mayoralty official of beating him

Zulfali Ismailov, an official from the Baku Mayoralty, attacked the photojournalist of the News Agency "Turan" Etimad Budagov, the victim reports. The incident occurred during the forced eviction of tenants of No. 20 in Shamsi Badalbeili Street.

The authorities demolish this two-storey building in order to build the park "Winter Boulevard" instead. The tenants are not happy with the offered compensation of 1500 manats (about 1900 US dollars) for 1 square meter and believe that the market value of their property is higher.

Budagov was filming the confrontation of tenants and workers. According to his story, his work angered the head of the Mayoralty secretariat Zulfali Ismailov, who, along with a group of people, attacked Budagov and Nushaba Fatullaeva, a reporter from the Azerbaijani Service of Radio Liberty. The journalists were not allowed to take photographs; the victims assert that the attackers took away Budagov's camera and broke it.

"I was taking pictures of what was happening: how tenants were forced out of their house. However, this angered Ismailov and he began crying that I stopped filming. At this point tenants began protecting me; and this angered Ismailov and his companions still further. They started pushing me out of the area. One of them ran up to me, snatched out my camera and smashed the lens. Someone else hit me from behind," Etimad Budagov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As reported by Mekhman Aliev, Director of the "Turan" News Agency, they plan to file a complaint to law enforcement bodies against the attack on the photojournalist. He said that Budagov's rights will be defended by employees of the Institute of Media Rights (IMR).

In the course of the confrontation, one of the tenants – Afag Ismailova – felt bad, and an ambulance was called. Another resident had his leg injured.

The Baku Mayoralty refused to comment on the incident with the journalists.