Monitoring Desk: US State Department has demanded the immediately release of journalist Mehman Aliyev who has been detained by government of Azerbaijan under a tax evasion case.
US State Department expressed concerns over the pretrial detention of Mehman Aliyev who is editor-in-chief of Turan Information Agency Azerbaijan.
Calling detention of Mehman Aliyev as an “assault on media freedom in Azerbaijan”, State Department in its statement released today said that detention of Mehman Aliyev and freezing bank accounts of Turan News Agency under case of tax evasion was an action by the government of Azerbaijan to curtail freedom of press.
“We urge the government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Mehman Aliyev, and all those incarcerated for exercising their fundamental freedoms, in accordance with its international obligations and OSCE commitments”, said the statement.
It may be mentioned that Azerbaijani authorities launched a tax-evasion investigation against Turan News Agency on August 7, 2017. Turan News Agency has been operating since 1990 providing news and analysis in Russian, Azerbaijani and English languages.
Azerbaijan government claims that News Agency is hiding tax statements and it owes over US$ 21,000 in taxes for the 2014-2016 period. However, News Agency denies the allegations and claims that investigations are politically motivated.
This is third case of its nature in recent past in Azerbaijan where government investigated tax issues of media organisations. Government jailed financial director of the Azadlig newspaper in July which is already closed down its operations.
An online television which is now closed down namely Kanal 13 online TV faced tax evasion charges in June 2017 and now awaiting trial on tax-related charges.
