Adnan Hikmat oglu Hajizada ( az, Adnan Hacızadə, born 13 July 1983) is an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger and one of the founders of OL! Azerbaijani Youth Movement. He was employed as an internal communications officer at British Petroleum.Adnan Hajizada's Bio
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Early life and education

Hajizada was born in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

. He graduated from Baku European Lyceum, participated in the

Future Leaders Exchange Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) is a scholarship student exchange program A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or university study abroad at one of their institution's partner institu ...

(FLEX) program, and studied for a time at Baku's

Qafqaz University Qafqaz University (in Azerbaijani: Qafqaz Universiteti) was a private university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was founded in 1993 and was the first and the only foreign private university in the country. On 16 January 2017, it was decided by m ...

. He holds a BA in Political Science from the

University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School ...

and a law degree from

Khazar University Khazar University ( az, Xəzər Universiteti, which directly translates as Caspian University) is a private university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Campuses Khazar University owns four campuses in the city of Baku and two campuses in regions of ...

. He also has a masters in public administration from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Detention and jail sentence

On 8 July 2009, Hajizada and another Azerbaijani youth activist and blogger

Emin Milli Emin Milli (born 14 October 1979) is a human rights activist from Azerbaijan who lives in exile in Germany. He is also managing director at Meydan TV. Milli is Azerbaijani. Background Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Milli was imprisoned in 2009 for t ...

were assaulted and severely beaten by two men in a restaurant in downtown Baku. Milli and Hajizada went to file a complaint about the assault, but instead police detained them and opened a criminal case against both, who are charged with hooliganism. On 10 July 2009, Judge Rauf Ahmadov of the Sabail district court in Baku placed both of them in pretrial detention for two months.

Günter Nooke Günter Nooke (born January 21, 1959) is a German CDU politician and a former civil rights activist. Background Nooke was born in Forst (Lausitz), Germany, a small town in Brandenburg. He grew up there only 150 km (90 mi) southeast ...

, German Federal Commissioner for Human Rights who was present in Baku during their trial but had to wait before the court and eventually, was the only one allowed to see Emin Milli for a few minutes. Subsequently, higher court rejected their appeal.

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, as well as a number of foreign countries have strongly condemned Milli and Hajizada's arrest, while the case prompted protests from 18 officials of the

, where Adnan studied and from BP, who employs him. Investigation in Milli and Hajizada's case was concluded on 22 August and an additional charge was brought against them ("deliberately inflicting minor bodily harm"). On 4 September, Judge Araz Huseynov presided over the preparatory session where a variety of defense motions, including one to have the charges dropped, another to permit media coverage of the proceedings and a motion to set the defendants free on bail for the duration of their trial were denied. The first hearing of the case was set on 16 September. Despite domestic and international pressure, on 11 November, the court sentenced Adnan Hajizada to two years in prison and Emin Milli - to two years and six months. Many rights groups, as well as US condemned the sentence. In September 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama called for the men's release during a meeting with President

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev ( az, İlham Heydər oğlu Əliyev, ; born 24 December 1961) is the fourth president of Azerbaijan, serving in the post since 31 October 2003. The son and second child of the former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev, ...

. A month later, the court in Azerbaijan has ordered the release of both jailed bloggers.

RFE/RL Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

(November 19, 2010)
Court Orders Release Of Azerbaijani 'Donkey Bloggers'
Retrieved on January 9, 2013.

References

External links

Adnan Hajizada's bio - azeri version - www.adam.az

Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada at police station

Blog for video petitions asking Emin and Adnan's release

The Collegian - University of Richmond's full coverage of the case

Protest Rally Was Held in Washington, DC in Support of Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli

Adnan Hajizada's Q&A on Reddit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hajizadeh, Adnan 1983 births Living people Azerbaijani democracy activists Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Azerbaijan Azerbaijani prisoners and detainees Khazar University alumni University of Richmond alumni Azerbaijani activists Azerbaijani bloggers BP people

Early life and education

Detention and jail sentence

See also

References

External links