Azberbaijan journalist dies after beating by soccer fans over Facebook post

Azerbaijan is a risky country for reporters.

Turan news agency reported that a cousin of Mr Huseynov had been detained, but Azeri security services could not confirm this to the BBC. He claimed that the persons were football player Javid Huseynov ‘s relatives.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the IFRS said that after it was banned last year Aliyev became its chairman, while working as a freelance sports journalist to earn money. He also routinely received threats. Prior to the fatal attack against Aliyev over the weekend, the journalist had received threats in connection with his work and critical posts he wrote on social networks about the climate for press freedom and human rights in the country, according to local and worldwide news reports.

Aliyev is beaten by police at a protest rally in Baku in June 2013.

Rasim Aliyev, 30, died in hospital after being beaten by a group of men irked over his Facebook post about a football match between Apollon and Gabala in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev had criticized the behavior of the Azeri team Gabala’s striker Javid Huseynov who waved a Turkish flag after an August 6 match with Cypriot team Apollon Limassol and allegedly made an offensive gesture at a journalist.

Aliyev then took to Facebook and stated that he did not want “someone this amoral, impertinent, and unable to control himself to represent me on European soccer fields”. He linked it to his status about J.Huseynov on Facebook.

Huseynov – who also plays for the Azerbaijani national team – later called Aliyev and told him he meant no offense to the Greek journalist but simply wanted to highlight the close Azerbaijani-Turkish relations.

After arriving at the agreed meeting place in the Sabail district of Baku, Aliyev said he felt a blow to his left ear and then fell to the ground.

Gabala expressed regret over the incident, adding that Huseynov has been dropped from the first team until the case was cleared. Huseynov himself has made no public comment.

The Azerbaijan Press Agency (APA) quoted a senior official who said President Ilham Aliyev is “seriously concerned” about the killing of Rasim Aliyev.

However, those remarks are unlikely to put to rest the fears of independent journalists, activists, and opposition politicians regarding the possibility of future attacks upon them.

A journalist has died from internal injuries after being attacked and beaten by supporters of a local soccer player.