Azeri journalist dies from beating over Facebook football row

Portugal’s national football team forward Danny (right) vies with Azerbaijan’s national football team midfielder Javid Huseynov during their 2014 World Cup qualifying football match at Tofig Bahramov stadium in the Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, on March 26, 2013. An Azeri journalist died Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, after being severely beaten as a result of his online criticism of the behavior of Huseynov who waved a Turkish flag after an Aug. 6 match with Cypriot team Apollon Limassol and allegedly made an offensive gesture at a journalist. AFP PHOTO/VANO SHLAMOV

BAKU, Azerbaijan–An Azeri journalist died Sunday after being severely beaten by unidentified attackers following a dispute over his Facebook post about a football match, his sister told the Turan news agency.

Rasim Aliyev, a 30-year-old photo and video journalist for a number of online publications, died in hospital after being beaten by a group of men who contacted him over his Facebook post about a heated football match between teams from Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

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

Aliyev wrote that Huseynov “did not know how to behave” and should not play in matches in Europe.

Aliyev told the Turan agency before his death that he had received insulting comments about the post.

He said he was contacted by telephone by a man claiming to be the cousin of the player. After initially abusing him, the man phoned him back in a conciliatory tone and invited him to drink tea on Saturday.

“I came out alone. There were 5 or 6 of them and they immediately threw themselves at me and started beating me up,” Aliyev had said.

He later died in intensive care after his condition worsened and he underwent an emergency operation.

An aide to President Ilham Aliyev told the state news agency that the case was being handled by the interior ministry and the prosecutor-general and there would be an “objective investigation.”