Elmar Huseynov, a prominent journalist and chief editor of the outspoken opposition journal MONITOR, was brutally killed at the entrance of his apartment on Wednesday. Human rights groups and journalists fear he was murdered for his critical articles on government officials and President Aliyevs´ family. (4-MAR-2005)

The bulk of its 60-odd pages are filled with investigative pieces, exposing official corruption, mismanagement and crime in different fields of economics and politics. killing spot Elmar

The human rights groups and journalists claim that Huseynov was murdered for his outspokenness and critic articles on government officials and Aliyevs’ family. “My son was killed on a political order from the top officials. He fell victim to his outspokenness and critic views”, said the father of the deceased.  

Ordered killing
“I have seen his bloody corpse. The aisle between the lift and apartment door is blood. He was brutally killed”, says Novella Jafaroglu, the local activist. Eldar Namazov, an independent political analyst in Baku, said however it appeared the killing had been ordered. “This was a contract hit,” Namazov said. “What happened today is way beyond acceptable, it is an open attempt at turning Azerbaijan into Belarus or Turkmenistan.”

Other attacks on journalists
Azerbaijan has been accused of suppressing freedom of speech in the run up to a parliamentary vote in November. Monitor journal faced hefty fines and dozens of lawsuits filed by various senior government officials. The magazine currently faces several lawsuits in retaliation for its  critical reporting, and journalists working for the publication have  faced a steady stream of harassment from government officials.  In February, military officials abducted Monitor journalist Akrep Hasanov  and held him for five hours after he had exposed abuses and mismanagement  in an Azerbaijani military unit.

President concerned
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has “expressed a deep concern” about the murder of country´s most outspoken opposition journalists, Elmar Huseynov and demanded that law enforcement agencies bring the killer to justice. The US State Department said defamation suits brought by officials against independent journalists and newspapers as well as high court fines for libel remained significant problems for the media in Azerbaijan in its annual assessment of human rights in the former Soviet republic, earlier this week.

International reaction
“We are shocked and saddened by the murder of Elmar Huseynov, and our  thoughts are with his family and colleagues,” the New York-based the Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Ann  Cooper said. “Press freedom conditions have declined in the last two years  since President Ilham Aliyev took office, and we call on him to ensure  that this case is aggressively investigated and prosecuted”, she said.