US-funded radio station in Azerbaijan raided in ‘crime inquiry’

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/26/us-funded-radio-station-azerbaijan-baku-raided

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A radio station funded by the US government says its office in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku has been raided by authorities who claim to have a court order to shut it down. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted the director of its Azerbaijani service as saying that the office had been locked down since early Friday morning by prosecutors and armed police.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said the search was conducted to investigate a “grave crime”, but did not elaborate. A station reporter, Khadija Ismayilova, was jailed earlier this month pending a trial on charges of driving a man to suicide, which critics described as an attempt to silence the journalist.

The station director, Kenan Aliyev, said: “Our equipment and computers are being confiscated. Journalists are being forced out of the office. What happens is part of a crackdown on free media in Azerbaijan.”

Amnesty International condemned Ismayilova’s arrest as a move to “gag free media” in Azerbaijan. Earlier this month, President Ilham Aliyev’s chief of staff, Ramiz Mehdiev, accused Radio Azadliq journalists of “treason”, calling them a “fifth column”.