The trial of RFE/RL journalist Farid Mehralizada began this week in Baku, Azerbaijan.
American, British, French, and German diplomats attended the Dec. 17 hearing as observers. RFE/RL thanked them for their support.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said: “The charges against Farid are baseless. Farid is being punished for reporting uncomfortable truths about Azerbaijan’s economy. Azerbaijan must end this sham trial and release Farid to his wife and newborn daughter.”
Farid was detainedin May and charged in connection with a case Azerbaijani authorities brought against the independent media outlet Abzas Media, for which Farid never worked. If convicted, Farid faces up to 12 years in prison. His trial will resume on December 28.
In a statement released on December 11, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Farid and others detained in the crackdown on Azerbaijani media and civil society.
Farid’s unjust imprisonment has taken a toll on his family. While in pre-trial detention, Farid missed the birth of his first child. He met his daughter for the first timeearlier this month, during a short visit at the detention center. “It was too painful to see them split up in the end,” Farid’s wife wrote on X. “They’ve already lost precious moments that can never be regained.”
His case follows another ordeal for Nika Novak, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Russian Service, known locally as Radio Svoboda, who on Nov. 26 was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for “collaboration with a foreign organization on a confidential basis.”
Nika is the first journalist to be sentenced under that particular article of Russian law, which human rights experts say is written so broadly that it could be used to prosecute anyone who communicates with individuals outside of Russia.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus condemned Nika’s conviction on politically motivated charges, which he said “are intended to silence individual reporters and cause a chilling effect.”
Nika was detained on December 25, 2023, when agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) raidedthe apartment she shares with her mother.
