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Shovket Shafiyeva, the mother of the Azerbaijani columnist and editor of the online Meydan TV Gunel Movlud, told the Azerbaijani service of BBC that she renounces her daughter, Minval.az reports.

Shafiyeva said her sons had been arrested because Gunel Movlud is a Meydan TV contributor. “They are simple workers. They have never dealt with politics. I declare that I renounce my daughter,” she said.

According to Baku service of the RFE/RL, she also said that her sons’ arrests are politically motivated. “I could not send my sons to receive education because of financial problems. They made a living as workers. They can have nothing to do with drugs. Those arrests were executed on political reasons,” she added.

Turan agency reports that the website of Meydan TV was seriously hacked on 21 October 2015 early in the morning. As a result, the work of the online TV was blocked. Turan highlights that Berlin-based Meydan TV is one of the most outspoken critics of the Azerbaijani leadership. Created by dissidents and former political prisoners, Meydan TV has long been under the Azerbaijani authorities’ pressure. Practically all of its journalists have been interrogated at the Prosecutor’s Office, while their close relatives are pressured.

Azerbaijani police detained Gunel Movlud’s brothers, Raja and Vekil Imanovs, on 13 October 2015 on charges of drug possession.

In September 2015, the parents of Rasul Mursalov, former Azerbaijani political prisoner and emigrant, also renounced their son. Maarif Mursalov, the father, sent an appeal about renouncing his son to the Presidential Administration, Prosecutor General’s Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of National Security and Ombudsman Office of Azerbaijan.

Earlier, in June 2015, in an appeal to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, 23 relatives of the director of Meydan TV, Emin Milli, declared they cut ties with him. Emin Milli’s relatives’ desperate step may be connected with June 27 arrest of his wife’s brother, programmer Nazim Agabekov, who was later “found to possess drugs.” This was perceived by many as a form of pressure on the oppositionist blogger.

In September, the media reported several detentions and interrogations of Meydan TV journalists.  Police detained freelance reporter Aytaj Akhmedova and her intern on September 16. Shirin Abbasov was sentenced the following day to 30-day administrative detention allegedly for disobeying the police. On September 18, freelance photojournalist Ahmed Mukhtar, whose brother works for Meydan TV, was detained and questioned. The next day three other journalists, Ayten Farhadova, Sevinj Vagifgizi and Izolda Agaeva, were detained upon their arrival at the Baku airport and transported to the police station.