On November 23rd correspondent of the Ayna/Zerkalo newspaper and the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety (IRFS) Idrak Abbasov underwent surgery on removal of renal cyst. This is a result of an attack on the journalist by SOCAR security officers on April 18th 2012 in the village of Sulutepe, where the journalist was filming a housing demolition and the confrontation between SOCAR employees and local residents, who were accused of illegal capture of SOCAR territories. The journalist was wearing a Press Jacket when he was assaulted.
Idrak was severely beaten and sustained broken ribs, injuries to his eyes and kidney and head trauma. Abbasov should also undergo eye surgery.
As yet nobody has been brought to justice for the brutal beating of journalist. Head of Socio-Political Department of the Presidential Administration, Ali Hasanov, expressed a view that Abbasov was involved in the conflict on the side of local residents, and SOCAR employees did not know that he was a journalist.
Two weeks ago, at a seminar in Baku, the OSCE Special Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, rejected that argument, noting that the world had seen the photos, where Idrak was dressed in a Press Jacket when he was beaten.