Ten days ago employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office conducted surprise search in the office of Zerkalo newspaper and took away the chief editor Elchin Shikhli’s computer, as well as part of the documentation of the editorial office. The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) was informed about this by Elchin Shikhli himself on May 01.
Although the inspection was authorized by a court order, Shikhli’s seized computer and documents have not been returned yet.
“The search was done following the day of our correspondent Rauf Mirgadirov’s arrest. The representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office, who came to our office, questioned the whole staff about Mirgadirov, and took away the documents relating to Rauf. The confiscated computer stores the entire archive of the newspaper, as well as my personal documents and archives of my father, famous public figure, People’s Writer of Azerbaijan, Ismail Shikhli. For now I have no opportunity to do something and it is unknown when they will return the computer” said the editor.
Note that Zerkalo’s Turkey correspondent Rauf Mirgadirov was arrested on April 19. He is charged with treason and has been given a three month pretrial detention by Nasimi district court.