Emin Milli

Emin Milli (born 14 October 1979) is an Azerbaijani writer, human rights activist, and dissident. He is currently living in exile in Germany. He is also managing director at Meydan TV.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan Emin Milli is a writer and dissident who was imprisoned in 2009 for two and a half years for his critical views about the government. He was conditionally released in November 2010, after serving 16 months of his sentence, in part due to strong international pressure on the government of Azerbaijan. From 2002-2004, Milli was director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and also advised the Council of Europe on more than 40 cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, many of whom were released following pressure from the Council. Prior to that, he was a coordinator for the International Republican Institute in Azerbaijan. He studied at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he wrote his dissertation on new media and Arab revolutions.

On 8 July 2009, Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade 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 Ahmedov of the Sabail district court in Baku placed both of them in pretrial detention for two months.Günter Nooke, 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,Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and European Union, as well as a number of foreign countries have strongly condemned Milli and Hajizade's arrest, while the case prompted protests from 18 officials of the University of Richmond, where Adnan studied and from BP, which employs him. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience.

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