Court strikes down Hajizada and Milli's appeal

A district court in Azerbaijan dealt another setback to Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli on Monday, rejecting a claim that law enforcement agencies had presumed their guilt without conducting a proper investigation, Ol! Youth Media was reporting.

The Collegian could not independently confirm the report, which was first posted on the movement's Twitter account Monday morning in the United States. E-mail messages sent to Hajizada's girlfriend, Parvan Persiani, and his father, Hikmet Hajizada, were not immediately returned.

The Azerbaijan Press Agency was also reporting on Monday that Hajizada and Milli had refused to participate in the investigation, quoting Isakhan Achourov, Hajizada's lawyer. That report could also not be independently confirmed either, but The Collegian was working to contact his lawyer on Monday.

Hajizada and Milli's trial is still expected to begin around Sept. 8, about two months after they were first detained by local authorities on charges of hooliganism.

Hajizada is a member of the opposition Ol! Youth Movement and graduated from Richmond in 2005 with a degree in political science. Milli is the founder of the Alumni Network, another group dedicated toward bringing the country closer to democracy. Both disseminate their messages through blogs and other social networking Web sites, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Authorities arrested them on July 8 on hooliganism charges after a fight at a restaurant in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. According to court documents filed by Hajizada's lawyer, the men were openly criticizing the government when two nearby patrons — Babek Huseynov and Vusal Mammadov — questioned their words, then attacked them, apparently unprovoked.

Huseynov and Mammadov have countered that Hajizada and Milli attacked them first.

Supporters for the activists, international human rights and press groups — including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders — say the hooliganism charges are a sham and that the arrests are part of a broader crackdown on press freedoms in the country.

Azerbaijan has come under increased international criticism recently for its perceived efforts to limit the press and has drawn the ire of a U.N. Human Rights Panel, which in a July 31 report asked the government to lift restrictions on the media and protect journalists and bloggers from the kinds of attacks alleged by Hajizada and Milli.

Several weeks ago, 17 Richmond professors sent letters to Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-7th, in addition to Yashar Aliyev, U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan president Ilham Allyev, asking them to give Hajizada and fellow activist Emin Milli proper due process of law while ensuring their rights and safety.

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This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Dan Petty reported from Denver.

Contact reporter Dan Petty at dan.petty@richmond.edu