Azeri court quadruples jailed reporter's sentence

An Azeri court sentenced a journalist on Tuesday to 8-1/2 years in prison on terrorism charges and for inciting racial hatred, quadrupling his present jail sentence.

A lengthy prison sentence handed down Tuesday by an Azerbaijani court to independent editor Eynulla Fatullayev. Fatullayev 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 Fatullayev on charges of terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred, and tax evasion. Fatullayev was editor of the now-shuttered Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan and the Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan.

“This was not a trial but a political persecution,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Executive Director Joel Simon. “We hold President Aliyev responsible and demand that he order Fatullayev’s release from jail. Clearly the government of Azerbaijan is using the legal system to persecute its critics.”

"The additional sentencing of Fatullayev on charges related to his work represents a further decline in the state of Azeri press freedom," said Johann P Fritz, International Press Institute (IPI) Director. "We urge the Azeri authorities in the strongest possible terms to release Fatullayev, along with all other Azeri journalists currently held in prison on charges related to criminal defamation, and ensure that they are allowed to continue their work as journalists without further harassment or intimidation."

“Fatullayev’s conviction is simply outrageous as there was absolutely no evidence for these charges,” Reporters sans Drontières (RSF) said. “This prosecution and an earlier one were politically motivated and mark a dangerous development for press freedom in Azerbaijan. We call on President Aliev to display clemency and have him released. Our hopes are also pinned on the European Court of Human Rights. It should tell the Azerbaijani authorities that this travesty of justice fools no one.”

In April, the Yasamal District Court in Baku sentenced Fatullayev to his first prison term for an article he maintains he did not write. In July, the Ministry of National Security charged Fatullayev 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 Realny 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 Fatullayev’s two newspaper’s offices would be confiscated, and that he pay a fine of 250,000 manat (US$58,000), Fatullayev’s defence lawyer Isakhan Ashurov, told CPJ.

Uzeir Jafarov, who succeeded Fatullayev as editor of Gündalik Azarbaycan, told the news website Kavkazky Uzel 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,” Fatullayev’s lawyer told CPJ. “The judge played the role of a notary public and rubber-stamped the prosecution’s demands.”

Emin Huseynov, 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 Fatullayev’s supporters from attending.

The persecution against Fatullayev started in April, soon after he raised questions about alleged government involvement in the unsolved 2005 slaying of editor Elmar Huseynov.

RSF said, “The article for which Fatullayev was convicted was just a foreign policy analysis. The authorities used it to punish a journalist who, in their view, was overly critical. This verdict comes amid a steady increase in harassment of the independent press, which is why Azerbaijan was ranked 139th out of 169 countries in our latest world press freedom index.”

It was in May, after RSF added President Aliev to its list of press freedom predators, that the authorities announced that they would no longer cooperate with the organisation. Azerbaijan fell four places (to 139th position) in the 2007 world press freedom index. Seven journalists are currently in prison in Azerbaijan.