Media Helping Media

Pressure grows to free Azerbaijani bloggers

Published on Monday, 03 August 2009

Written by David Brewer

  

 

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has been briefed on the case of the two Azerbaijani bloggers arrested in Baku last month.

 

27 UK MPs have now added their names to a petition calling for the release of the two, Adnan Hajizada and Emin Abdullayev.

Last week demonstrators protested outside outside the country's embassy in London and collected signatures in support of the two men; that protest has been recorded on YouTube and written about on the BBC Azeri service.

Intervention by UK politicians

The UK politicians want the British government to put pressure on President Ilham Aliev to release the two and have put their names to a House of Commons Early Day Motion (the equivalent of an MPs’ petition).

In the motion, Labour MP Paul Flynn says the MPs condemn "the attacks and imprisonment of youth activists in Azerbaijan."

Paul Flynn told this site he briefed the Foreign Secretary but that David Miliband did not commit himself to a course of action at this stage.

The MPs calling for the release of the two include:

• Paul Flynn
• Lynne Jones
• Bob Russell
• Andrew Dismore
• David Taylor
• Martin Caton
• Gordon Prentice
• Alan Simpson
• Kelvin Hopkins
• Jeremy Corbyn
• Ann Cryer
• Mark Durkan
• Andrew George
• Alasdair McDonnell
• Ronnie Campbell
• Clive Efford
• Rudi Vis
• Iris Robinson
• John Hemming
• Dai Davies
• Katy Clark
• Simon Hughes
• Gordon Marsden
• John McDonnell
• David Drew
• Anne Begg
• John Leech

Online campaign continues

 

Adnan Hajizadeh is one of the founders of OL! Youth Movement which has a Facebook site.

 

The group also tweets @olmedia and has a YouTube site where it updates videos of the campaign to free the two.

Emin Milli helped set up the Alumni Network (AN).

Supporters of the two have set up an online video petition where people can post video messages calling for their release.

It's reported that Hazijada’s court hearing is expected to be on or after Tuesday 8 September.

  

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