Azerbaijani authorities have filed a terrorism charge against Eynulla Fatullayev, the imprisoned editor of independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan.Fatullayev, a persistent government critic, is already in prison on a specious defamation charge and has received multiple death threats. Over the weekend, government officials sealed his newspapers’ offices, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported.
National Security agents Tuesday conducted an hour-long search of Fatullayev's home and the papers’ offices. The offices were sealed Sunday after fire officials alleged that the building housing the publications was in violation of fire safety regulations. Agents confiscated all of the papers’ 21 computers during Tuesday's search, IRFS reported. Independent Turan news agency said agents also seized notebooks and other documents.
Fatullayev had drawn threats from Azerbaijani nationalists after he travelled in February 2005 to Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan, to interview leaders of the region’s unrecognised government. Last month, Fatullayev was sentenced to 30 months in prison for defaming refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh in a remark posted on the Internet. Fatullayev told CPJ in March he never made the comment and that the case had been fabricated to silence him.
Fatullayev's conviction, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), was based on a statement attributed to him that was posted to the website Azeritricolor. The statement blamed Azerbaijanis for the 1992 massacre in the village of Khojali in Nagorno-Karabakh. Chaladze alleged that the statement defamed the village's residents.
According to Azerbaijani official statistics, more than 600 people were killed on February 25, 1992, when ethnic Armenian forces stormed the predominantly Azeri town of Khojali. Fatullayev denies making the remark and maintains that it was a set-up intended to put him behind bars. The remark was apparently linked to an article Fatullayev had published in 2005, "Karabakh Diary," in which he expressed the view that Armenian forces maintained a civilian corridor for Azeri villagers to flee Khojali.
“Not content with having jailed Eynulla Fatullayev on a spurious libel charge, the authorities in Azerbaijan have now brought a vague terrorism charge that could keep him behind bars for another 12 years,†said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Without supporting evidence, this indictment seems to be the latest step in a relentless onslaught by the authorities to silence critical media and journalists. We call on the prosecution to withdraw this charge immediately.â€
"The eviction paralyses Azerbaijan's largest and most popular newspapers, in a clear attempt to fully silence them. This is part of an ongoing campaign to do away with independent journalism," said OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti. He noted the evacuating authorities cited alleged danger from "structural deficiencies" in the 13-storey building, but had evicted no other tenants.
"I have also received worrying news that since the eviction the newspapers' servers and archives are being searched by national security personnel. All this represents an openly oppressive stance, going beyond the previously seen discriminatory treatment of independent media," Haraszti added.
Gündalik Azarbaycan editor Uzeyir Jafarov told CPJ the staff intended to continue publishing the newspapers.
Realny Azerbaijan is the successor of the opposition weekly Monitor, which was shut down after the unsolved March 2005 assassination of its editor, Elmar Huseynov. Both Realny Azerbaijan and Gündalik Azarbaycan are known for their critical reporting and are widely read in Azerbaijan. In March this year, Fatullayev received a death threat after accusing Azerbaijani officials of involvement in Huseynov’s killing. The threats have continued even while Fatullayev has been in prison.
Eynulla Fatullayev, according to HRW, is known for his frequent criticism of Azeri officials and for exposing instances of government corruption. Pressure on Fatullayev to stop his journalism had been building for over a year. Fatullayev was forced to suspend publication of his newspapers on October 1, after his father was kidnapped. The kidnappers threatened to kill both Fatullayev and his father if he continued publishing the newspapers. The editor had to stop publication of the paper in exchange for his father's release. Fatullayev renewed publishing only two months later, but acknowledged that he did so at his own peril, since the kidnappers remained at large.
According to CPJ, Azerbaijan is one of the world’s worst backsliders on press freedom and the leading jailer of journalists in the region. Highranking government officials have suppressed critical voices by filing criminal defamation lawsuits, lodging spurious drug charges, and imprisoning independent and opposition journalists.
