Azerbaijani website owner fined for social media post about Tofig Yagublu

The court has imposed a fine on the owner of the Yeniavaz.az online outlet after he refused to remove the Facebook post about the investigators' version that the activist, Tofig Yagublu, had injured himself at the police station.

On January 20, Anar Garakhanchally, the head of the "Azermedia" LLC, was summoned to the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Azerbaijan, where they demanded from him to remove from the Facebook page of the Yeniavaz.az the post entitled "GPO: Tofig Yagublu brought himself to such a state by beating himself up with his own fists."

"This post dealt with the GPO's refusal to initiate a criminal case on the beating up of the oppositional politician, Tofig Yagublu, after he had been detained by the police. During the inquiry, it was established that Tofig Yagublu "hit himself against the wall and hit his face with his fists" at the police station. We quoted the GPO's decision and posted a photo of excerpts from this document," Mr Garakhanchally has explained.

According to his story, he asked the GPO official if the posted information was incorrect, but he replied that "everything was OK there." "However, according to his version, when posting the text under such a heading, we should have foreseen relevant comments. I said that we can't be held responsible for users' comments," Anar Garakhanchally has noted.

He refused to delete his post; and an administrative case was opened against him as the founder of the website.

The hearing of the Garakhanchally's case was held at the Nasimi District Court on February 3, the advocate, Nemat Kerimli, said. "At the hearing, the GPO representative stated that the website's manager shall remove slanderous and offensive comments and is responsible for this," Mr Kerimli has added.

According to the advocate, the judge, based on the GPO protocol, imposed a fine of 1500 manats on the "Azermedia"; this judgement will be appealed against.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 4, 2022 at 04:54 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.