12:35, 29 November 2003

Rauf Arifoglu's lawyer not allowed to see his client

On November 27, the direction of Bailovsky Investigatory Isolation Ward 1 did not allow Lawyer Samed Panakhov to see his client - Yeni Musavat Newspaper Editor-in-Chief Rauf Arifoglu, who has been kept under arrest there for over a month being charged with organization of mass riots. According to Mr. Panakhov, the deputy chief of the isolation ward told him he was just carrying out a special superior order apropos of that. All the lawyer's attempts to find out who and when had issued that order failed, as well as his attempts to point out that the actions of the isolation ward's direction were illegal.

Meanwhile, Arifoglu's lawyers Panakhov and Kerimli and his brother Aykhan keep on meeting representatives of international organizations and the foreign diplomatic corps. They went on a meeting to the OCSE Office in Azerbaijan and asked the OSCE to help them set the editor-in-chief free.

Author: Shakhin Rzayev, expert of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations

Source: Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (Moscow)