Baku Sun, 4 March 2005

As family and friends of a controversial magazine editor gathered on Thursday preparing for his funeral they arranged candles and flowers on the stairs to his apartment trying to cover the bloodstains from his murder the night before.

Elmar Huseynov was reportedly shot several times in his heart late Wednesday after stepping from an elevator in his building lobby according to witnesses, news agencies and Baku police.

Monitor, the Russian-language weekly socio-political magazine Huseynov founded and edited, was considered one of Azerbaijan's most radical publications and was strongly critical of Azeri authorities and President Ilham Aliyev. When published, much of its roughly 60 pages contained investigative journalism.

Tension between the government and the opposition across Azerbaijan have escalated since the October 2003 election when Ilham Aliyev became president. Several opposition leaders, including journalists, have been sentenced to prison over unrest that followed the election.

Monitor was ordered closed twice. After the first order, in 1998, it continued publishing under a slighly different name. It shut after the second order, in 2002, but renewed publication after following a change in media licensing legislation the same year.

Huseynov served six months in prison in 2001-2002 after a successful libel suit by the mayor of Baku. Last November, a court ordered his property confiscated to pay $20,000 fine connected with a 2003 suit by a representative of Azerbaijan's. Nakfichivan enclave after he accused officials there of behaving like the Sicilian Mafia. Huseynov didn't have enough property to cover the fine.

Police are now investigating the murder but human rights groups have already linked it to his journalistic activities. A magazine employee, who witnessed the murder, alleged Huseynov could have been the victim of a contract killing.

"When Huseynov was leaving a lift in his apartment block the lights went off,' said the man who asked to remain anonymous. "Then I heard several pistol shots, and when the light was back, Huseynov was dead."

Earlier in the week two opposition journalists claimed to have been detained and beaten up by the police.

Thursday at Huseynov's apartment, located near Neftchilar Metro on the outskirts of Baku, his wife Rovshaniyya gathered with women to mourn as men stood outside by the traditional funeral tent to hear prayers from the Koran.

Huseynov who was 38, is survived by his 18-month-old son Murad.

Funeral services will continue over the coming days.

* The Associated Press and local news sources were also used in this report.