Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office rejects any pressure on journalist Halil

Yesterday, on May 21, the press service of the State Office of Public Prosecutor made a statement, which refutes the data about beating Agil Halil, journalist of the "Azadlyg" newspaper, on February 22, 2008, in Maslinovaya Grove and rendering pressure on him during the investigation.

According to the version of the investigation, Dagbey Allahverdiev and Akif Chovdarov (high-ranking officers of the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan) have evidenced that on February 22, at about 5:00 p.m., when they were crossing the Maslinovaya Grove in Baku, they saw an unknown person who was making photos. In the context of "specificities of their work" they would not want to be photographed and tried to take the camera away from the unknown person.

The forensic-medical examination of Agil Halil, held on March 18, did not reveal any "objective evidences of any physical injury", and the criminal prosecution on this fact was stopped.

In his turn, Mr Halil himself has treated, in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the statement of the Prosecutor's Office to be "an impudent lie." As he said, there are pretty plenty evidences that on February 22 he was beaten in the Maslinovaya Grove by Akif Chovdarov and Dagbey Allahverdiev.