Talk to Farid Mehrlyzada’s friends and Kolegs, and they will tell you that they have a superpower: the ability to explain economics in this way that common people can understand.
It was the superpower who made a young economist and a journalist from Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/ RL) a commentator as a commentator on the talk show and discussion panel in Azerbaijan, where a government claim was patiently debated. This was a possibility of great superpower due to which he was arrested.
On May 30, 2024, Mehrilizada was violently kidnapped near a Baku station, who hood to him, who hood him and rushed him to a police station.
Two days later, a Baku court placed him in pre-testing detention for a “conspiracy to smuggle foreign currency”. Three months later, “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion and document forgery” were added to the allegations.
If convicted, he can withstand a prison of up to 12 years.
East painful memories for disorganized journalist
Mehrilizada’s test, which is expected to end this month, has brought back the difficult memories for his RF/ RL Kolag, Alsu Kurmasheva, who spent nine months in the Russian jail, who first failed to register himself under the controversial foreign agent law of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “sprained” sprained for the first “sprained lies”
“Hearing that the prosecutors wanted“This took me back to my punishment where the prosecutor wanted me a nine -year imprisonment.”
Nine years, Kurmasheva explains, more than the average murder sentence in Russia.
“People who kill a human being get five or six years,” she says where “journalists get nine or 12 years reporting the truth. It is beyond comprehension.”
Kurmasheva was released in August 2024 as part of a high-profile prisoner swap, including Wall Street Journal journalist Ivan Gorsakovich. Footage of her joyful reunion with her husband and two teenage daughters went worldwide. However, she says that 10 months later, she and her family are still suffering from flashbacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn8sdsn8Duc
She said, “I will erase what has happened to my husband’s memory, my children’s memory, my memory,” she told DW. “We still feel harm.”
In the case of Farid Mehralizada, the cost has already been stein. His wife was pregnant at the time of her arrest, and she gave birthday what she was in pre-trial custody.
“I have already missed my daughter for the first time smiling, laughs, and rolls,” Mehlizada recently wrote from jail“If convicted, I want to remember more precious moments than whatever I can imagine.”
An increasing crack on the press and NGO
The allegations against Farid Mehlizada are specialized for leaving journalists, NGO workers and other civil society actors against Azerbaijan’s ongoing government action, which see NGO Human Rights Watch in a large -scale old report in a large scale in a 2024 report: “We try to be invisible.” Azerbaijan’s increasing cracks on critics and civil society.
Mehlizada stands for testing with six other journalists – all independent investigative outlets are from Jack Media. However, Mehrlyzada has never worked for Abhay. His employer is Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, established by the US government during the Cold War, later supervised by the United States Agency for the global media and became a private corporation funded by the US Congress.
Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty journalists operated at great personal risk in some of the world’s most challenging media environment. Typically, Washington’s advocacy will be conveyed in a case like Mehrlyzada. However, the organization is currently struggling with a money crisis by President Donald Trump’s efforts to freeze its funding, there is some hope of temporary relief from the European Union for the promise of € 5.5 million emergency allocation.
‘What am I going to say to their families?’
When Alsu Kurmasheva first heard about Donald Trump’s intention of freezing RFE/ RL funding, what was his first idea for him Undivided colleague,
Her next view, she says, “What: I am going to call their families next time I am going to call their families?”
However, matters such as Kurmasheva’s Mehrlyzada can be made in the headlines, with the advocacy of press freedom groups and journalists around the world, with RFE/ RL’s sufficient bilateral support by RFE/ RL.
Every time when there is a trade talks between the country, Kurmasheva says, the authorities should not be afraid to increase the plight of the interrupted journalists: “When the free world is united on this issue, the problem will be solved.”
It is a belief that may look utopian, until you do not remember that Kurmasheva speaks with the right of someone who has experienced a miracle.
Many RFE/ RL journalists imprisoned
Since his release last year, Kurmasheva’s journalism has become a career. Meanwhile, she has become a full -time lawyer for other journalists who are not so lucky. He included her RFE/ RL colleagues in Crimea Vladyslav Yesypenko, Nika Novak in Siberia and Ihar Losik in Belarus, as well as Mehralizada.
Kurmasheva says that he is particularly concerned for Nika Novak, because “conditions for female prisoners in Russia are hurtic,” and Novak, he has the reason to believe, getting frustrated.
The Ihar Lossic disappeared in the infamous prevention system of Belarus five years ago, and no contact has been possible since then.
“Hey is a young journalist who is very talented,” says Kurmasheva. “Hey it should be.”
Edited by: Carla Blekar
