{"id":31179,"date":"2025-10-19T12:55:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/?p=31179"},"modified":"2025-10-19T12:55:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:55:58","slug":"family-of-jailed-abzas-media-editor-alleges-abuse-during-prison-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/news-feed\/family-of-jailed-abzas-media-editor-alleges-abuse-during-prison-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Jailed Abzas Media Editor Alleges Abuse During Prison Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sevinj Vagifqizi, the jailed editor of Abzas Media, had family members who say they were abused by staff at the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex during a recent visit. These incidents, including forced searches and privacy breaches, allegedly happened on October 18, 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Abzas Media and Meydan TV report that the journalist&#8217;s mother, Ofeliya Maharramova, and sister were treated poorly.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Before the visit, staff tried to forcibly search Vagifqizi\u2019s mother and sister in a private room, demanding they take off their shoes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The family questioned the search, as Maharramova has a heart device and wanted careful handling, while the journalist&#8217;s sister couldn&#8217;t comply due to a recent leg surgery. Both asked for a device search instead. Though an apparatus check found nothing, the forced searches continued as they left.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Vagifqizi\u2019s sister said her shoes were forcibly removed during the exit search, and the insoles were torn out. She called the supervisor&#8217;s manner rude.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The family also claims their privacy was violated during the one-hour visit with Sevinj Vagifqizi, as a supervisor stayed in the room the whole time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sevinj Vagifqizi was upset, saying she couldn&#8217;t talk freely. The staff member reportedly said, \u201cthat is the order\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sevinj Vagifqizi is connected to the Abzas Media case.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>On June 20, the Baku Court sentenced her and others, including Ulvi Hasanli, to prison. Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova got eight-year sentences, and Mahammad Kekalov got seven and a half years. The Baku Court of Appeals supported this on September 9.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Vagifqizi, Absalamova, and Gasimova were moved to the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex on September 25, which relatives say has made visits harder. The journalists believe the transfer is due to their work.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Since the alleged abuse happened on a non-working day, getting a statement from the Penitentiary Service was initially impossible, and neither it nor other relevant bodies have commented yet.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sevinj Vagifqizi, the jailed editor of Abzas Media, had family members who say they were abused by staff at the Lankaran Penitentiary Complex during a recent visit. These incidents, including forced searches and privacy breaches, allegedly happened on October 18, 2025. Abzas Media and Meydan TV report that the journalist&#8217;s mother, Ofeliya Maharramova, and sister [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1047],"class_list":["post-31179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed","tag-editor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31180,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31179\/revisions\/31180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}