Azerbaijan: Editor slammed with hefty sentence

New York, October 30, 2007

The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces a lengthy prison sentence handed down today by an Azerbaijani court to independent editor Einullah Fatullaev. Fatullaev is already serving a two-and-a-half-year prison term for allegedly defaming Azerbaijanis in an Internet posting he says he did not write, and has been sentenced to another eight-and-a-half years.

Judge Mekhdi Asadov of the Azerbaijani Court of Heavy Crimes in the capital of Baku convicted Fatullaev on charges of terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred, and tax evasion. Fatullaev was editor of the now-shuttered Azeri-language daily Gyundelik Azerbaijan and the Russian-language weekly Real Azerbaijan.

"This was not a trial but a political persecution," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We hold President Aliyev responsible and demand that he order Fatullaev's release from jail. Clearly the government of Azerbaijan is using the legal system to persecute its critics."

In April, the Yasamal District Court in Baku sentenced Fatullaev to his first prison term for an article he maintains he did not write. In July, the Ministry of National Security charged Fatullaev with terrorism and incitement of ethnic and religious hatred, stemming from a sharply critical piece on President Ilham Aliyev's foreign policy regarding Iran. While the story was published earlier this year in Real Azerbaijan, another reporter was the author. In September, the government added a third charge of tax evasion.

Besides the eight-and-a-half-year prison term, the court also ruled that everything in Fatullaev's two newspaper's offices would be confiscated, and that he pay a fine of 250,000 manat (US$58,000), Fatullaev's defense lawyer Isakhan Ashurov, told CPJ.

Uzeir Jafarov, who succeeded Fatullaev as editor of Gyundelik Azerbaijan, told the news Web site "Caucasian Knot" that the government filed the tax evasion charge after repeatedly interrogating his papers' staffers. He said they were questioned about their salaries and the publication's sources of financing.

"I am speechless about the court," Fatullaev's lawyer told CPJ. "The judge today played the role of a notary public and rubber-stamped the prosecution's demands."

Emin Guseinov, director of the Baku-based Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety, said the trial reminded him of those in Stalin's time, when judges admitted clearly false testimonies. He said independent journalists and human rights activists were not allowed to take notes during the court proceedings and authorities in the courtroom prevented many of Fatullaev's supporters from attending.

The persecution against Fatullaev started in April <http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/europe/azer20apr07na.html>, soon after he raised questions about alleged government involvement in the unsolved 2005 slaying of editor Elmar Guseinov.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit www.cpj.org.

Muzaffar Suleymanov
Research Associate, Europe and Central Asia
Committee to Protect Journalists