Arrest period extended for journalists in Meydan TV case

A Baku court has extended the pretrial detention of defendants in the Meydan TV case by three months.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, at the end of June, the Khatai District Court considered the prosecutor's motions to extend the detention periods of several journalists arrested in the "Meydan TV case". In separate court proceedings, the pretrial detention of Aynur Elgunesh, Nurlan Gahramanli (Libre) and Aytaj Akhmedova (Tapdyg) was extended for another three months.

Today, September 16, another court hearing was held in the Khatai District Court on the issue of extending the pretrial detention of journalists arrested in the "Meydan TV case".

The pretrial detention of journalists Fatima Movlamli, Ulviye Ali and Shemshad Agan was extended for three months as part of a process that was conducted individually, Meydan TV reported.

Along with Meydan TV employees, journalists from other media outlets, including Toplum TV, Abzas Media and Kanal-13, were also subjected to persecution. The persecution of journalists is described in the "Caucasian Knot" report "Serial arrests of journalists in Azerbaijan".

On June 20, journalists and employees of the Azerbaijani online publication Abzas Media were sentenced to terms of 7.5 to 9 years. In court, they rejected the charges, emphasizing that they are being persecuted for their professional activities and investigation of corruption cases.

The number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan reached its peak in 2024 in 23 years of the country's membership in the Council of Europe, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "The main thing about the record number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan". At the same time, the Azerbaijani authorities deny the existence of political prisoners in the country.