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\n The police moved aside, letting journalists, neighbors, and friends enter and leave. Sultansoy climbed the same stairs Huseynov had ascended not long before and saw the apartment door ajar. His friend was lying a few feet inside, his belly poking out from his sweater, blood smeared on his face. Sultansoy knelt and took Huseynov\u2019s still-warm hand. Seeing for himself that his friend was dead, he kissed him and left.\n<\/p>\n
\n Huseynov\u2019s reporting had targeted Azerbaijan\u2019s elite, from politicians to big business. Long before his death, he had been subjected to intimidation and threats on his life. Since that night, his friends and family have speculated about whether powerful individuals had sought to neutralize him.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe pattern of pressure against Elmar in the run-up to his assassination bears similar hallmarks to many cases we have seen in other countries, in which journalists were deliberately targeted,\u201d said Rebecca Vincent, a former U.S. diplomat posted to Baku in the aftermath of Huseynov\u2019s murder and now director of international campaigns for Reporters Without Borders (RSF).\n<\/p>\n
\n On the 16th anniversary of Huseynov\u2019s murder, OCCRP can shine new light on the murky investigation into the killing. Drawing on court filings and other documents obtained via freedom-of-information requests, our reporting includes an examination of a previously unpublished file from the FBI, which had been called in to help investigate.\n<\/p>\n
\n The information lays out a catalogue of obfuscations and missteps since 2005, largely made by the Azerbaijani authorities who were meant to be responsible for bringing Huseynov\u2019s killer or killers to justice. As the case remains unsolved, OCCRP has found that a key suspect remains at liberty, while Azerbaijan has appeared to mislead Husyenov\u2019s family on the investigation\u2019s status. As a result, an already troubling affair may have even graver implications for Azerbaijan\u2019s steadily shrinking space for press freedom.\n<\/p>\n
\n \n By March 2005, press freedom in Azerbaijan had already come under significant pressure from President Ilham Aliyev, who\u2019d taken the reins of the South Caucasus nation from his father a year and a half earlier. Eight journalists had been arrested since the younger Aliyev had come to power, and with a parliamentary election due in November 2005, the media was bracing for further confrontation. That year, Azerbaijan ranked 141st of 167 countries on RSF\u2019s Worldwide Press Freedom Index.\n<\/p>\n \n The Monitor, Huseynov\u2019s outlet, was known for its stinging reporting on corruption, which included taking aim at the president and his family. When rumors swirled that Huseynov had been silenced by powerful people, Aliyev strongly refuted suggestions that his family or its allies were involved. Decrying the crime as a \u201cblack spot\u201d on Azerbaijan\u2019s history, he promised a robust investigation, and put a call in to the then-U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish, to enlist expert help from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThis crime must be investigated thoroughly and the criminals must be called to account,\u201d he said the day after the murder.\n<\/p>\n \n On the ground in Baku, the FBI would later meet with the lead investigators and Azerbaijani ministers, visit the crime scene, review the existing evidence and initial autopsy reports, and gather evidence themselves.\n<\/p>\n \n But from the start, the investigation was dogged by an apparent unwillingness by Azerbaijani officials to focus on whether Huseynov had been killed because of his journalism. Instead, ministers in charge of the probe fixated on unsubstantiated claims that Armenia had ordered the killing to harm Azerbaijan\u2019s government.\n<\/p>\n \n Sixteen years later, one of the murder suspects appears to live freely in Georgia, acquiring property interests in Tbilisi and a plot of land in Marneuli, in the country\u2019s south. And although Azerbaijan\u2019s Ministry for National Security insisted to Rushaniya Huseynova that its inquiries were ongoing, officials were telling the FBI, over the same time period, that the case was stalled.\n<\/p>\n \n While authorities were getting nowhere, Huseynov\u2019s killing had an instant impact, according to RSF\u2019s Vincent. The murder of one of the country\u2019s best-known reporters sparked fear among other probing journalists that they could be next.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cElmar\u2019s case was particularly emblematic, not only in Azerbaijan, but throughout the region,\u201d she said. \u201cHis targeting was no doubt intended to send a clear signal not to cross certain red lines, and was effective in creating a chilling effect that can still be felt to this day.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \n The FBI case file into the murder, which the agency noted was so serious that \u201cit could topple\u201d the government, was compiled between 2005 and 2008. Seen by OCCRP, it reveals serious misgivings on the part of Legal Attach\u00e9 Bryan Paarmann, who noted missed opportunities right from the start.\n<\/p>\n \n Paarmann pointed to basic failures in crime scene control on the night of the killing, when police failed to stop members of the public from laying a trail of flowers on the blood in the stairwell, destroying any possibility that tread or footwear evidence could be gathered.\n<\/p>\n \n Crime scene photographs seemed to have been taken long after any evidence was removed, a \u201cvery poor procedural error,\u201d Paarmann wrote. The recovery team, he added, did not even wear gloves when recovering a key piece of evidence.\n<\/p>\n \n After discovering that Huseynov\u2019s hallway had been darker than usual that night because a lightbulb above his door was not sitting properly in its socket, Paarmann noted that local investigators had failed to test that area for prints.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201c[I] inquired as to whether this bulb had been processed for latent fingerprints and was informed that too many people had touched it therefore this was deemed as non productive,\u201d he wrote.\n<\/p>\n \n In regard to Huseynov\u2019s autopsy, Paarmann asked whether fingernail scrapings had been taken to check for skin samples that could identify the killer. He was told yes, this had been done, but the results had come back negative. However, he could find \u201cno mention of this procedure\u201d in initial reports provided by the Azerbaijanis.\n<\/p>\n \n Despite all this, some leads did appear promising.\n<\/p>\n \n The day after the murder, a 5.45mm Baikal PSM semi-automatic pistol was found, sitting in plain view in a planter in front of Huseynov\u2019s building. It still bore all its serial markings, which indicated it had been manufactured in Russia. Shortly afterwards, a dark-colored knit skullcap was recovered from another planter nearby.\n<\/p>\n \n The murder seemed \u201chasty and sloppily executed,\u201d Paarmann wrote, the marksmanship poor. The weapon was found where it was \u201csure to be discovered,\u201d with its markings clearly legible. The government of Azerbaijan felt the hit was carried out by a \u201cskilled individual,\u201d but a professional would have destroyed the markings and disassembled the gun, Paarmann reasoned.\n<\/p>\n \n But if he took hope from the fact that investigators were dealing with, in his words, \u201ca possible amateur,\u201d the FBI attach\u00e9 was concerned by the attitude of Azerbaijani ministers.\n<\/p>\n \n Though they admitted there were several possible avenues of investigation, Paarmann appeared to grow frustrated as they obsessed over a theory that a foreign country had ordered a hit on Huseynov to sow chaos in Azerbaijan. At the top of the ministers\u2019 list of possible perpetrators was Armenia, with Russia and Iran considered possibilities.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThe assembled ministers did acknowledge that the motive for this murder could have been purely personal or retaliation for Huseynov\u2019s inflammatory journalistic positions, but spent a vast majority of their time enumerating why they believed it to be a coordinated, foreign-sponsored assassination aimed at destabilizing the government,\u201d he wrote.\n<\/p>\n \n Paarmann wrote that government officials were doing \u201cseveral things correctly,\u201d but his early conclusions were damning.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201c[I am] concerned with the premature focus on one theory of the crime and that it may lead to an attempt to make the facts fit that theory instead of a reasoned, methodical and unbiased investigation with utilization of logical, deductive reasoning towards a defensible conclusion,\u201d he wrote.\n<\/p>\n \n When he made a raft of recommendations to Azerbaijan\u2019s investigators, he was told they would \u201ctake them into consideration.\u201d Instead, the FBI found itself slowly sidelined.\n<\/p>\n \n \n Two months into the investigation, authorities had identified two suspects: Tahir Khubanov and Teimuraz Aliyev. Both citizens of neighboring Georgia, they had rented an apartment near Huseynov\u2019s home in the period before the killing, and later crossed back over the Azerbaijan-Georgia border.\n<\/p>\n \n When Azerbaijani investigators recovered two pillowcases and clothing from their Baku apartment, the FBI matched DNA from these items with the cap found at the crime scene, which authorities said linked both men to the murder. The FBI described the evidence against the men as \u201cstrong,\u201d but nothing has emerged to indicate that either man had a connection to the subjects of Huseynov\u2019s journalism, leaving any possible motive a mystery.\n<\/p>\n \n A search was launched, but Azerbaijani authorities seemed reluctant to run images of the two men online. A July 2005 report from news agency Turan quoted officials as saying there was \u201cno necessity in placing pictures of these people on the internet.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Aliyev was finally located in Georgia, and denied involvement when interrogated by Georgian authorities in September 2006. The waters had been muddied, too, after former Azerbaijan Ministry of Interior official Haji Mamedov, on trial for several unrelated killings, claimed in the summer of 2006 that his hit squad had killed Huseynov. To help clear things up, in January 2007 the FBI offered to perform a polygraph test on Aliyev.\n<\/p>\n \n An FBI assistant legal attach\u00e9 wrote to Azerbaijan\u2019s Minister of National Security Eldar Mahmudov, saying Aliyev and the other suspect were likely still in Georgia and that Georgian authorities would probably cooperate.\n<\/p>\n \n An internal letter from the FBI to U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse, however, suggests the FBI saw Azerbaijan\u2019s cooperation as a \u201churdle\u201d to getting the polygraph done. The FBI case file contains no evidence that it ever took place, and the investigation stagnated.\n<\/p>\n \n After the attach\u00e9 met with the Ministry of National Security in September 2008, he wrote: \u201cThe [ministry] advised that their investigation has stalled and they do not have further need of FBI assistance.\u201d Yet just a few months earlier, in July, ministry officials had told Rushaniya they were working tirelessly to bring the killers to justice. A senior official wrote to her lawyer: \u201cAt the moment a total, comprehensive and objective investigation of the case is being carried out.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n In March 2009, as Rushaniya persisted with her inquiries, she received another letter of response from a senior ministry official. Once more, he confirmed the investigation was ongoing. But he added, too, that the \u201cpreliminary investigation\u201d had been extended to September 2009. This last detail is significant because by law, Rushaniya was only entitled to see case materials after any preliminary investigation was finished. Her lawyer would later point out that it seemed strange, four years after the murder and long after Azerbaijani authorities identified key suspects, that they would claim that the preliminary investigation was still ongoing. Writing a court submission, he said that this was \u201cnot likely\u201d to be the case.\n<\/p>\n \n RSF\u2019s Vincent said authorities in Azerbaijan \u201cappear to have intentionally obstructed the pursuit of justice,\u201d adding that the new documents \u201cshow, at best, a lack of political will to secure justice \u2014 or perhaps worse, a more sinister attempt to distract, deflect, and obstruct the criminal investigation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \n Though officials in Azerbaijan told Rushaniya in a 2009 letter that they were still looking for Khubanov and Aliyev, there were at least clues to the latter man\u2019s location.\n<\/p>\n \n A simple public records search by OCCRP showed that somebody using Aliyev\u2019s ID bought two apartments in Tbilisi, one in May 2008 and another in June 2008. The apartments were in a building occupied by several members of his immediate family, including his mother. OCCRP asked Azerbaijani authorities if they pursued this lead, but the request for comment went unanswered. Aliyev did not respond to written questions from OCCRP, which were hand-delivered to the building and received by a relative.\n<\/p>\n \n And on March 17, 2009, the same day the Ministry of National Security wrote to Rushaniya, Interpol wrote to the ministry with information that Aliyev was based in Tbilisi. Of Khubanov, there was no news.\n<\/p>\n \n It remains unclear from case files whether Azeri authorities relayed this information to Rushaniya, who declined to comment for this article.\n<\/p>\n \n She eventually brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2010. In their responses to her allegations in that case file, Azeri authorities pointed out that they had in fact asked for the extradition of Aliyev and Khubanov, but claimed that Georgia refused because they were Georgian citizens. The filings indicate Azerbaijan made this request to Georgia in 2005.\n<\/p>\n \n Azerbaijani authorities did not respond to a question on whether they ever made further requests. However, the ECHR\u2019s 2017 ruling pointed out that Georgia\u2019s Deputy Prosecutor General had told Azerbaijan in 2005 that he was willing to start criminal proceedings against Aliyev within the Georgian justice system.\n<\/p>\n \n In other words, Aliyev could have been prosecuted if Azerbaijan had transferred the case to Georgia. Documents show that Georgia appears to have begun initial proceedings, but nothing came of them.\n<\/p>\n \n \n Rushaniya\u2019s lawyer, Knut Rognlien, told the ECHR that when Azerbaijani authorities insisted that the suspects were foreigners who couldn\u2019t be found or spoken to, they were simply avoiding uncomfortable questions. The same types of questions, according to the FBI file, that ministers had dodged right from the start.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cHad they been apprehended, Teimuraz Aliyev and Tahir Khubanov could also have been interrogated regarding possible contact with authorities and their motive for the murder,\u201d Rognlien wrote.\n<\/p>\n \n Those who knew Huseynov say the impunity surrounding the case continues to do serious damage to press freedom in Azerbaijan.\n<\/p>\n \n Steinar Gil, Norway\u2019s ambassador to Azerbaijan at the time of the killing, called it \u201ca warning that journalists who want to criticize openly and stand for the values of the free press would be at risk.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Officially free to roam in Georgia, Aliyev is still going about his life today, buying properties and acquiring shares in local businesses. No trace has been found of Khubanov. The only person ever jailed in relation to the murder, Turgay Bayramov, was sentenced to two years in prison for buying a phone for Aliyev and Khubanov.\n<\/p>\n \n In response to a request for further information from OCCRP, Georgian prosecutors referred reporters back to the ECHR\u2019s ruling. Azerbaijani prosecutors did not respond to a similar request.\n<\/p>\n \n Even as the investigation has stalled, three more reporters have died in the line of duty in Azerbaijan since Huseynov was gunned down on the darkened steps to his apartment. Azerbaijan has dropped to 168th of 180 countries on RSF\u2019s World Press Freedom Index.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThere is no media freedom in Azerbaijan today,\u201d Gil said. \u201cIt\u2019s zero, none. After this, people would think \u2018If this happened to Elmar, it could happen to anyone.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \n Sixteen years ago, Azerbaijani investigative journalist Elmar Huseynov was gunned down in the stairwell of his Baku apartment building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":157355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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\n \u201cA Black Spot\u201d
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\n FBI Misgivings
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\n Two Suspects
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\n Apartments in Tbilisi
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\n Uncomfortable Questions
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\n Eleanor Rose is an investigative journalist based in London who specializes in human rights and has written for the Guardian, the Evening Standard, and the Independent, among other publications.
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\n Aidan Iusubova (iFact) contributed reporting.
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