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In 2009, two Azeri bloggers uploaded a satirical video featuring an interview with a violin-playing donkey onto YouTube. In response they were beaten up - and then arrested and imprisoned for affray. They spent a year in prison.

The two, Adnan Hajizade and Emin Abdullayev , have now complained to the European Court of Human Rights that their rights to freedom of expression, liberty and due process have been violated. The Media Legal Defence Initiative and its partners – the Media Rights Institute and Index on Censorship - have intervened in the case to point out that repression of free expression is widespread in Azerbaijan, and to condemn it.

Our intervention argues that the attack on and prosecution of the bloggers in retaliation for their criticism are not isolated incidents. The harassment that the two suffered for their satirical video commentary reflects a well-documented pattern of abuse of the rights of bloggers, journalists and human rights activists.

In Azerbaijan, those who criticise government misconduct, or even simply investigate it, can expect a swift and vicious response. They may be assaulted or suffer stalking and intimidation, destruction of their property, loss of employment and financial pressure. They are likely to be subject to abusive legal proceedings and groundless detention, to be sentenced to jail and to be denied humane treatment when they are in prison. Some have even been killed.

As a result, critical voices are suffocated by fear: fear of death, fear of kidnapping, fear of wrongful imprisonment, and even fear of attacks on loved ones. An examination of this hostile environment leads to only one conclusion: in Azerbaijan, the right to freedom of expression is purely theoretical; it cannot be exercised in any real or effective way.

This crushing attack on free expression is approved—at times tacitly, at times openly—by the government. Vafa Gulusade, a former presidential advisor, confirmed in a recent interview with the New York Times that beating up and prosecuting dissidents is all part of government business. “It’s absurd to you,” he said, “but very sensible to us. When two bloggers are punished in this way, there will not be a third.” Such unpredictable and indirect punishments of free speech provide a clear warning to any would-be detractors and are very effective in gagging government critics.

MLDI is asking the European Court to condemn the Azeri government for systemically violating the right to freedom of expression and stifling democratic debate. The government of Azerbaijan should be ordered immediately to stop the intimidation and persecution of journalists, human rights advocates, members of the political opposition and civil society activists.

Our intervention can be downloaded here.

Hajizade's and Abdullayev's video can be viewed here.