2014 prison census - Azerbaijan: Nijat Aliyev

Baku police arrested Aliyev, editor-in-chief of the independent news website Azadxeber, near a subway station in downtown Baku, and charged him with possession of illegal drugs. A local court ordered Aliyev to be held in pretrial detention; since then, authorities extended his imprisonment several times.

Colleagues disputed the charges and said they were in retaliation for his journalism. Aliyev's deputy, Parvin Zeynalov, told local journalists that the outlet's critical reporting on the government's religion policies, including perceived anti-Islamic activities, could have prompted the editor's arrest.

CPJ has documented a pattern in which Azerbaijani authorities file questionable drug charges against journalists whose coverage has been at odds with official views.

Aliyev's lawyer, Anar Gasimli, told the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety that investigators tortured the journalist in custody and pressured him to admit he had drugs in his possession. According to the institute, Gasimli said police also threatened to plant narcotics in the editor's apartment and file "more serious" charges against him.

In January 2013, authorities slapped Aliyev with additional charges of illegal import and sale of religious literature, making calls to overturn the constitutional regime, and incitement to ethnic and religious hatred, the institute reported. In March 2013, investigators finished the investigation against the editor.

On December 9, 2013, the Baku Court for Grave Crimes sentenced him to 10 years in jail, according to the independent regional news website Kavkazsky Uzel. In June 2014, Azerbaijan's Court of Appeals denied Aliyev's appeal, the report said. He was being held in Azerbaijan's Prison No. 2.