Court prolongs arrest term of "Kanal 13" employees for another 3 months

The Sabayil district court of Baku on Thursday extended for another three months the term of pre-trial detention of the head of Internet TV “Kanal-13” Aziz Orujev and employee of this resource Shamo Eminov. This was reported to by lawyer Bahruz Bayramov.

According to him, the extension of the arrest was motivated by the need to obtain answers to requests sent by the investigation. The defense considers the detention of journalists unjustified.  At that, Orujev is still detained in the medical center of the Penitentiary Service due to health problems.

*Aziz Orujev and Shamo Eminov were arrested in November-December 2023 on charges of currency smuggling as a part of an organised group. Both deny the charges, believing the true reason for the arrest to be their journalistic activities.

“Reporters Without Borders”, “Amnesty International”, the European Federation of Journalists and a number of other local and international human rights organisations, as well as the European Union Special Representative for Human Rights and PACE Rapporteurs called on Baku to stop pressures on independent media and release the arrested journalists.