Two more journalists held criminally liable in Azerbaijan

On October 7, the Nasimin District Court of Baku, chaired by Elmar Kerimov, finished the trial on the claim of Mais Mansimov, president of the football club "Khazar Lenkoran", against the reporter of the website www.fanat.az Natik Mukhtarly and the head of this electronic edition Zakhir Azamat. The defendants were sentenced to corrective works.

The complaint was lodged by way of private charge, and the claimant demanded criminal punishment for the defendants under articles 147 (slander) and 148 (insult). Mr Mansimov saw an insult and harm to his business reputation in the articles placed in the website.

The court found the defendants guilty and sentenced Mukhtarly to 1 year, and Azamat - to 6 months of corrective works. According to the verdict, they shall pay 20 percent of their monthly salaries to Mansimov.

Mr Azamat said in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that they would not accept the verdict and plant to appeal against it at the Baku Appeal Court.

He believes the court decision was "customized" and finds it to be pressure on him for his work in other, political, website www.qaynar.info, where he is the founder. In his opinion, in their case Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, dealing with the freedom of expression was breached.

Let us note that in publications in the website www.fanat.az Mansimov was labelled as "parasite living for the account of others."

However, the authorities of Azerbaijan deny any journalists' criminal prosecution for their publications. Ali Gasanov, head of the public-political department of the President's administration, other government officials have repeatedly stated that "the journalists were convicted for their particular criminal acts."