Well-known journalist specializing in human rights issues Ayten Mammadova was attacked around midnight on May 8 at the entrance of the building where she lives.
Following her into the lift, an unidentified man put a knife to the journalist’s throat and threatened her in a court case, which he did not name.
According to her, a middle-aged man entered the lift as she was returning home.
“When the lift door closed. He grabbed my jaw with one hand and put a knife to my throat with the other. The knife cut through my throat. Then he took the knife away, and then he put it to my throat once more. A gash was left on my throat.
He said to me: “you haven’t wised up”. Then he started threatening and insulting my young daughter. When the lift reached my floor, he let me go and drove back,” Mamedova said.
According to the journalist, her husband tried to chase the attacker, but the attacker managed to escape.
She believes the attack was related to her professional activities.
Mammadova believes that it may be related to the case of the murder of a minor girl.
According to Mamedova, she received a call on her home phone 20 days later about the case.
Mammadova is one of the journalists who actively cover the trial of Ilkin Suleymanov, the defendant in the case.
It should be noted that during the trial many facts came to light which give grounds to claim Suleymanov’s innocence and falsification of the criminal case.
Mammadova believes that “there are forces that do not want to establish the truth in this case”.
According to Mamedova, during her journalistic activities she had never had any problems with either state structures or individuals”.
“This is the first attack,” Mamedova said.
Mamedova had been a correspondent of the opposition newspaper Azadlyg for long years.
Since the paper’s printing stopped and its online version was blocked, she has co-operated with various media outlets in Azerbaijan.