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

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

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

Hajizada was born in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

. He graduated from Baku European Lyceum, participated in the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program, and studied for a time at Baku's Qafqaz University. He holds a BA in Political Science from the

University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approxim ...

and a law degree from

Khazar University Khazar University (, 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 Azerbaijan. Xəzər U ...

. He also has a masters in public administration from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Detention and jail sentence

On 8 July 2009, Hajizada and another Azerbaijani youth activist and blogger Emin Milli 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 21 January 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; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, 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,

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

called for the men's release during a meeting with President

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005. The son and second child of former Aze ...

. 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 media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

(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