A court in the Azerbaijani capital Baku has sentenced two journalists to 30 months in prison apiece on charges of defaming President Ilham Aliyev’s uncle. Yasamal District Court Judge Malahat Abdulmanafova Wednesday convicted Editor-in-Chief Rovshan Kebirli and reporter Yashar Agazadeh of the Baku-based opposition daily Muhalifet on charges of defaming Jalal Aliyev under articles 147 and 148 of the criminal code. Jalal Aliyev is also a member of parliament.
According to the Committee to Protect journalists (CPJ), Aliyev filed a libel complaint against the journalists after a February article criticised his business activities and those of his family, according to local and international press reports. The story, which relied partly on a Turkish news report, said the Aliyevs’ import-export business profited from the family’s political connections.
CPJ has called for the verdict to be overturned on appeal, for the journalists to be freed in the meantime, and for the criminal defamation law to be repealed. "The conviction of Rovshan Kebirli and Yashar Agazadeh is part of a pattern of shamelessly using criminal defamation statutes to silence critical reporting in Azerbaijan," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. "We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to repeal criminal libel laws and stop jailing journalists."
The journalists’ lawyer, Rashid Hajili, is expected to appeal the verdict, according to Emin Huseynov, chairman of the Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS). Kebirli and Agazadeh are being held in the Bailov Prison in Baku, the news website Day reported.
Earlier this month, a court jailed two independent journalists over an article that said Islam was hampering economic and political progress. Reporter Rafiq Tagi and editor Samir Sadagatoglu of the independent newspaper Senet were convicted of inciting religious hatred and sentenced to three and four years in prison respectively by judge Yusif Kerimov of the Sabail district court in Baku.
Tagi and Sadagatoglu published an article on November 1 last year titled “Europe and Us,” which said that Islam’s influence was hindering Azerbaijan’s economic and political development. The journalists were detained that month and held in pretrial detention for more than four months. Tagi and Sadagatoglu also received death threats from Islamic radicals in Azerbaijan and neighboring Iran, who demanded the journalists be executed.
With seven journalists now in prison, Azerbaijan is the leading jailer of journalists in the region. This month, CPJ named Azerbaijan one of the world’s worst backsliders on press freedom. According to CPJ research, President Aliyev and his allies have filed criminal defamation lawsuits and lodged spurious drug charges to silence critical media.
Azerbaijan's persecution of journalists has been condemned in recent months by CPJ, Human Rights Watch, and the Council of Europe. Earlier this month, Azerbaijan said it would no longer cooperate with Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), which has included Ilham Aliyev among its "Press Freedom Predators" and ranked the country 135th out of 168 in its 2006 Press Freedom Index.
