According to Reporters Without Borders blog, friends and supporters of detained bloggers will hold birthday parties for, but without Emin in Baku, Strasbourg, Paris, London, New York, Budapest, Houston and possibly, Basel.

Ironically, Adnan Hajizade also had to mark his birthday in jail this year – just five days after his arrest he turned 26.

However, the new government in Baku fell – various narratives talk of it as either a coup, or a national salvation. Hikmat Hajizade was dismissed from his post and recalled home. And then, it happened in Baku, when the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan was assaulted and severely beaten while walking in the street of its capital – somewhere in downtown in 1993.

Now, after sixteen years, history is repeating itself once again: this time it is Hikmat Hajizade’s son Adnan who was assaulted and severely beaten together with his friend Emin Milli while dining in a downtown restaurant. Yet, what ended for Hikmat Hajizade with injuries and possibly, bitter pains, has ended for Adnan with additional two-month pretrial detention and plus, a hooliganism charge promising up to 5 years in jail. Not an adequate perspective for a University of Richmond alumnus and BP employee, and a pioneer of video-blogging in Azerbaijan. Neither for his friend, Emin Milli – former country director of Friedrich Ebert Foundation and former Council of Europe consultant.

Back in 1993, when Hikmat Hajizade was assaulted and beaten, the country was embroiled in a bitter chaos, partly a fault of incompetency of the government once he represented. Baku’s major street fights and last armed uprising were to be subdued two years later – I still recall those bullet sounds in my neighbourhood. Now, the country enjoys a stability and oil revenues have created some sense of prosperity – however, the state of freedoms seems to change in a worse direction – sixteen years ago, a father would be beaten, but now, a son is not only beaten, but is also jailed and can face an endarkening prison sentence.

Democratic activism is a long tradition in Hajizade family, as well as the state of being assaulted and beaten for their activities – the only new element here is the fact that Adnan Hajizade now is being tried for both. Below – is the interview of Adnan Hajizade’s father to RFE/RL Azeri service, with English subtitles.

However, in judiciary practice, such defendants usually get released on bail or end with a house arrest. According to law expert Erkin Gadirli, two months of pre-trial detention is the maximum period that a law-breacher can receive, and this type of detention is usually conditioned with disturbing criminal past of detainees, their liaisons inside and outside of the prison, as well as degree of their dangerousness, possibility of their escape, degree of graveness of the crime, etc. Surely, with no criminal records or behaviour, Emin and Adnan recieved the harshest verdict possible.

Even visiting German Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid, Günter Nooke was not allowed to attend the trial. The Chairman of Sabail District Court Justice Gulzar Rzayeva refused to let in Günter Nooke or anybody else by pointing out that the trial is held behind closed doors in accordance with Azerbaijani laws. While around 150 supporters of Emin and Adnan, as well as residents of neighborhood, international and local NGO representatives, foreign diplomats and Mr. Nooke waited outside at the tightly closed door of the court house, the court sentenced both activists to two months of detention in presence of indicted and their lawyers, but refusing to listen to witnesses and bringing in the ‘victims’ of the alleged hooliganism act.

During these two months while Emin and Adnan are in detention, the investigation has to be concluded and their case brought before the judge. If the investigation is not concluded, their detention period can be extended for additional two months. While detained, they won’t be able to receive any guests, instead of their lawyers. They will be held in a new detention center in a town of Kurdokhani, a small town in an hour’s drive from Baku.

Emin Milli is one of prominent civil society activists in Azerbaijan and helped to forge a powerful but flexible Alumni Network (AN) – an incredible pre-Facebook era social network and strong mobilization force for country’s youth.  Four days ago, on 4th July, Emin was a speaker in a Heinrich Böll Foundation roundtable dedicated to a democratization process in Azerbaijan, where he strongly criticized the Azerbaijani government for its anti-democratic practices.

Adnan Haji-zadeh is one of the founders of OL! Youth Movement, a liberal entity that declares the principles of modernity, non-violence and tolerance. Adnan himself is a pioneer of video-blogging in Azerbaijan and is famous for his video reportages covering problems and challenges of youth and posted in Youtube.

Baku based Institute of Reporters’ Freedom and Safety has called Emin and Adnan’s arrest ‘politically motivated’. Visiting Deputy Secretary of U.S. State Department, James Steinberg has told RFE/RL Azeri Service that they keep this issue under constant attention, while Günter Nooke warned that this incident ‘can create a scandal beyond the borders of Azerbaijan’ and ‘damage her image’.
 

RFE/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani section reports that two presidents, two parliament speakers, two prime ministers, one prosecutor general and two state counselors in Azerbaijan either were imprisoned, or fled the country after being indicted of grave crimes in past 18 years. 12 ministers were held in prisons – one of them passed away in confinement, two ministers are still serving their terms. Among high-ranking prisoners of Azerbaijan there were two ministers of economy, two ministers of agriculture, two ministers of national security, one minister of interior and one minister of finances.

Two most dangerous government spheres were economy and national security.