SEVINJ VAGIFGIZI ABBASOVA
Journalist, editor-in-chief of Abzas Media, was among several journalists being secretly monitored by the Azerbaijani government through their phones using Pegasus spyware.
About Sevinj Vagifgizi
Sevinj Vagifgizi was born on 5 July 1989 in the Fuzuli district of Azerbaijan. She began her career as a reporter for the Gun Sahar newspaper while studying at the Faculty of Journalism of Baku State University. She later worked for the newspapers Bizim Yol and Azadlıq and the media organisation Meydan TV. Since September 2022, she has been the editor-in-chief of Abzas Media.
Over the past fifteen years, Sevinj Vagifgizi has faced increasing pressure and persecution due to her journalistic work. She has been repeatedly detained by the police for her reporting, video recordings, and media-related protests. On 20 September 2015, upon returning from a training session for journalists in Kyiv, she was detained at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku along with several colleagues from Meydan TV and taken to Azerbaijan’s Main Organized Crime Department, where she was interrogated by the Serious Crimes Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office in connection with a criminal case involving Meydan TV. From 2015 to 2019, a travel ban was imposed, restricting her from leaving the country.
In April 2018, during the presidential election in Azerbaijan, Vagifgizi was sued and fined for filming and disseminating footage of election fraud at a polling station in Nizami district, Baku.
According to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Vagifgizi was among several journalists being secretly monitored by the Azerbaijani government through their phones using Pegasus spyware.
Being a journalist in Azerbaijan means that officials will react to your question in any way but actually answering it. They might threaten you, they might grab your camera and break it, they might leave your phone calls and requests unanswered or hang up on you. Or it might be worse.
Sevinj Vagifgizi
18 July 2021
During Vagifgizi’s tenure as editor-in-chief, Abzas Media published numerous investigative reports exposing the corruption of President Ilham Aliyev’s family and other high-ranking officials.
On the morning of 20 November 2023, employees of the Main Police Department of Baku City detained Ulvi Hasanli, the director of Abzas Media. The office was searched that afternoon, and €40,000 was allegedly found there. A criminal case was then initiated against Abzas Media, with Hasanli being arrested.
Sevinj Vagifgizi was in Europe on a business trip when this incident occurred. Despite warnings to the contrary, she returned to Azerbaijan on 22 November; however, she was detained at the airport, and her home was searched the same night.
Abzas Media Cases Advocacy
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Abzas Media cases
Sevinj Vagifgizi and other journalists associated with Abzas Media were initially charged under Article 206.3.2 of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code, which relates to smuggling by a group of persons.
The charges were later intensified to include illegal entrepreneurship involving significant income (Article 192.3.2), money laundering by an organised group (Articles 193-1.3.1 and 193-1.3.2), smuggling by an organised group (Article 206.4), tax evasion by an organised group (Article 213.2.1), and forgery of documents and use of such documents (Articles 320.1 and 320.2). The penalties under these articles include imprisonment of up to twelve years.
Sevinj Vagifgizi denies the charges. In her court statements, she attested that her and her colleagues’ arrests were politically motivated, stemming from Abzas Media’s investigations. She believes the goal is to punish them and prevent further investigative reporting.
Vagifgizi and five other journalists from Abzas Media are all facing the same charges, which they deny, insisting that they are being punished for exposing corruption involving high-ranking officials, including members of Azerbaijan’s ruling family. They allege that the money found in their office was planted by the authorities during the search.
Vagifgizi and her colleagues have had their pre-trial detention extended multiple times as the investigation continues, with no clear end in sight. The charges against them could result in up to twelve years of imprisonment.
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