Azerbaijan

A particularly shocking attack was carried out last weekend on Seymour Khaziyev, a journalist with the opposition newspaper Azadlig, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Khaziyev was set upon by six masked men as he was returning to his home in Jeryanbatan on the outskirts of Baku on the night of March 26. Taken in a minibus to an unknown location with a...

New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed alarm about reported threats in prison against embattled editor Eynulla Fatullayev. According to CPJ interviews and local press reports, Fatullayev has feared for his life since his recent transfer to a new jail, prompting him to request that he be isolated from other inmates. Now in solitary confinement, his health...

The jailed chief editor of the former newspaper "Gundalik Azerbaijan," Eynulla Fatullayev, has sent a letter to President Ilham Aliyev expressing hope that he will be released, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. Fatullayev's lawyer, Anar Qasimov, told RFE/RL the journalist asked Aliyev to intervene in the complicated situation around Fatullayev's case and "expressed hope he will be released as...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed outrage over the Baku Appeals Court's decision to reject imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev's latest appeal and continues to defy a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that called for his release. On January 25, the court denied Fatullayev's appeal of his July conviction on a trumped-up charge of drug possession, the independent...

The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers has released its final statement on the case of imprisoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev. The statement emphasises that, as a member of the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan has agreed to abide by the final judgment of the court. "The November 11 ruling by the Azerbaijani Supreme Court makes Fatullayev's release possible. However, he remains behind bars and...

While the Azerbaijani Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the country will uphold the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights decision to immediately release editor Eynulla Fatullayev, he remains in jail. The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for his immediate release. A November 5 decision by the Baku Appeals Court said the editor must remain in custody while he appeals an...

Azerbaijan’s supreme court Thursday partially complied with a European Court of Human Rights ruling from last April by quashing jailed newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev’s 2007 convictions on charges of terrorism and inciting hatred, thereby recognising that his rights were violated. But it upheld a third 2007 conviction on a charge of tax evasion and a July 2010 conviction on a charge of...

Azerbaijan’s highest court on Thursday upheld a April 22 decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), ordering the immediate release of Eynulla Fatullayev, an Azeri journalist who was sentenced in 2007 to eight-and-a-half years in prison for defamation and “fomenting terrorism” through his articles. As IPI reported at the time, the Court voted six to one that Azerbaijan had violated...

Ahead of Azerbaijan’s upcoming Parliamentary elections, nine organisations are launching a new report titled Free Expression under Attack: Azerbaijan’s Deteriorating Media Environment. The report findings come out of a joint freedom of expression mission to the country in September 2010 and highlight the Azerbaijani government’s failure to comply with its international commitments to promote and...

The International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan conducted a three-day freedom of expression mission to Azerbaijan from September 7-9, during which they met journalists and other media workers, civil society activists, and government officials, and collected testimonies of violations of freedom of expression. The participating organisations were: ARTICLE 19, Freedom House, Index on Censorship...