On April 28 Elchin Ismayilli, correspondent of Azadliq newspaper in Ismayilli region, received a threatening telephone call, the journalist himself told the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) on April 29. According to the journalist, Rafael Ahmadov, former first deputy of Ismayilli city mayor, called him up, intimidating and insulting him for what the journalist had written about him on social networks: “He abused me and my relatives, because I had written about negative attitude towards him in Ismayilli and his actions during January’s mass riot in the city. He threatened to hire a person to beat and kill me” the journalist noted.
In his turn, Rafael Ahmadov refuted the journalist’s claims and denied intimidating him: “He wrote what popped into his head and insulted me. I just called to express my dissatisfaction over this. I said nothing about beating or killing”.
Note that, prior to his case, journalist Elchin Ismayilli had been repeatedly threatened, intimidated and even dogged by local officials for covering the mass protest that took place in Ismayilli on January 23-24.