A tale of tyranny behind the kitsch of Eurovision in Azerbaijan The officers made it clear they would have liked to inflict greater injury. They said 'Eurovision saved your life'. Mr Ali, who was held in prison for 10 days on a hooliganism charge, is not alone in experiencing violence. When Mr Aliyev took the presidency nine years ago, there were hopes that he would erode the personality cult that had grown around his father, Heydar. Azerbaijan's economy has boomed as it exploits vast reserves of hydrocarbons in the Caspian seabed. Baku's old town of caravanserais and the exquisite, tapering Maiden's Tower, built of stone in the 12th century, is overlooked by huge neo-classical apartment blocks and a trio of brash skyscrapers shaped like flames Last week, workers were scrubbing stucco and trimming flowerbeds in anticipation of thousands of foreign Eurovision fans descending on the city. Hundreds of purple London-style cabs - dubbed "aubergines" - have been commissioned to ferry the guests around town. Yet the polished city is a facade. Aliyev Junior turned out to be even more of a hardliner than his father. Nepotism is rife, parliament is neutered and opposition politicians are prosecuted on trumped-up charges. Poverty is widespread and neighbourhoods of Baku have been razed for new construction and oil development, in a sometimes ruthless process. Idrak Abbasov, 36, a video journalist, documented such forced demolitions in his own neighbourhood, Sulutepe, a suburb of the capital. In response, security men from the state oil company, SOCAR, sent a digger to his father's home last year, where the driver smashed down the steel gates and plunged the machine's bucket into the house, destroying part of the roof and walls. His elderly parents were roughed up by the oil men. In April, as he filmed a group of SOCAR operatives evicting a family from a house about to be knocked down, the men attacked him. He was bludgeoned unconscious with truncheons and left with a damaged eye, a forehead pouring blood and two broken ribs. "I'm told they kept kicking and hitting me for 15 minutes after I passed out," he said. Violence is not the only method to keep unruly journalists in line. Khadija Ismailova, 36, a reporter with Radio Liberty in Baku, is known for her cutting reports that implicate Mr Aliyev, his wife Mehriban and their two daughters, Leyla and Arzu, in murky business dealings. On March 7, she received a letter which read: "Whore! Behave, or you will be defamed! Inside the envelope were a series of still photographs taken from a secretly-filmed video. The pictures showed Ms Ismailova having sexual intercourse in her apartment with her boyfriend. "At first, I was shocked, but then anger killed the fear," she said. Ms Ismailova went public with the threat, saying she had nothing to be ashamed of. Soon afterwards the video appeared on the internet. Prosecutors did nothing, so Ms Ismailova launched her own investigation, discovering that a telephone engineer had received special orders from the security services to install wiring in her apartment which allowed a hidden camera to be set up. "I think this could not have happened without the president's circle knowing about it," she said. The threatening letter came as she prepared a new dispatch, published earlier this month. That suggested the president's relations profited from the building of the $134 million Crystal Hall via hidden ownership of a construction company called Azenco. "It's simple: if you touch the holy family, you get in trouble," said Ms Ismailova. In Azerbaijan, we have a mixture of a Soviet system and a medieval monarchy. Mr Aliyev's government denies wrongdoing. Ali Hasanov, the head of public and political issues, said its enemy, Armenia, and its rival, Iran, were helping disseminate lies to besmirch Azerbaijan. "Journalists like Khadija Ismailova are members of the political opposition, which is trying to use Eurovision as a means to attract the attention it could not achieve for so many years because it offers nothing to the people," he said. Our economy is flourishing and these are dissatisfied marginals. Mr Ali, the musician, is unconvinced. He is urging Eurovision contestants to speak out against Mr Aliyev's regime on stage. But he said he held out little hope for support. "They're so cheesy," he explained in perfect English. They make me want to throw up.