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Secretary-general of the international human rights organization Reporters Without Borders Christophe Deloire has made an announcement in which he harshly condemned the beating of Azerbaijani human rights defender and journalist Ilgar Nasibov in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The announcement is placed on the website of the organization. 

“Reporters Without Borders is deeply shocked to learn that Ilgar Nasibov was beaten unconscious http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/247880/ yesterday in Nakhchivan, the capital of an autonomous western exclave of Azerbaijan where he was found last night unconscious in a pool of blood. His wife, fellow journalist Malahat Nasibova, suspects the authorities,” reads the announcement.

As the announcement notes, Nasibov has multiple fractures, a dozen of stitches to the face and head and is in intensive care now. The spouse suspects that Azerbaijan authorities are to blame. In 2011, Nasibova described the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic as a “laboratory of repression” in which “repressive methods are tested” and “are then applied on a large scale in the rest of Azerbaijan.”

According to her Nazibova, “the attack is part of a crackdown on civil society that recently began in Azerbaijan.”

If this is the case, then “an unacceptable threshold will have been crossed in their attempts to silence the last critical voices in Azerbaijan. Whoever was to blame, this bloody assault must be fully investigated and those responsible must be punished. We urge the international community to react so that this kind of violence does not keep recurring,” said Deloire.

Reporters Without Borders highlight that in 2014 Azerbaijan has seen an unprecedented crackdown on civil society, independent journalists and media support organizations by state authorities and that the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is notorious for violence against journalists. The organization also notes that Azerbaijan is ranked 160th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Nasibov, a journalist actively contributing to several media outlets in Azerbaijan, was assaulted on 21 August by a number of individuals in his office at the Resource Centre for Development of NGOs and Democracy in Nakhichevan. Nasibov was severely beaten and his office property was destroyed. As reported by Azerbaijani information agency Turan, the reason for the assault is not known, however this is most probably a part of ongoing persecution of civil society that has intensified recently in Azerbaijan.

Related:

OSCE, Freedom House and British Embassy are shocked by brutal attack on Azerbaijani journalist Ilgar Nasibov
Civil Rights Defenders calls on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release all human rights defenders
OSCE condemns persecution of civil society in Azerbaijan