The Azerbaijani authorities must release employees of the publication Toplum TV. This is one of the important independent media covering political topics, investigations into corruption and irregularities during voting in the presidential elections in February. This call was made by the Committee to Protect Journalists (located in New York).

Four Toplum TV employees were accused of currency smuggling. The journalists denied the accusations and said police left the money in their homes. Earlier, six employees of the Abzas Media publication, which conducts anti-corruption investigations, and two journalists from the independent Internet television Channel 13 were detained. Authorities accused them of bringing illegal money received from Western donors into Azerbaijan.

“After similar attacks on Absas Media and Channel 13, the raid on Toplum TV and the arrest of its journalists shows that the Azerbaijani authorities intend to destroy the last remnants of the country’s independent press. Particularly outrageous is the news about the police detention of the publication’s founder, Alasker Mammadli, while undergoing treatment for cancer,” said Gulnoza Said, program coordinator of the Committee for Europe and Central Asia.