Appeal court confirms 30-month jail term for detained newspaper editor

8 June 2007
Reporters without borders (press release), France

"Fatullayev was convicted over online posts attributed to him that said the Azerbaijani armed forces shared responsibility with their Armenian counterparts for the deaths of hundreds of civilians during an attack by Armenian troops in 1992 on the village of Khojali in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region."

Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today at an appeal court’s decision on 6 June to uphold a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Eynulla Fatullayev, founder and editor of the daily newspapers Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, for defaming and insulting Azerbaijanis under article 147.2 of the criminal code. He has been held ever since the sentence was passed on 20 April.

“This decision confirms an exceptionally disproportionate sentence,” the press freedom organisation said. “At the same time, Fatullayev has been notified of new, terrorism-related charges against him, without being given any details of these charges. The two newspapers he edited have been closed illegally and his conditions of detention are cause for concern about his health and safety.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “We support Fatullayev’s appeal to the authorities to guarantee his safety and provide him with acceptable conditions of detention.”

Fatullayev has reported that guards threatened him and pointed a gun at his head when he was transferred on 29 May from Bail prison to the national security ministry detention centre. Since the transfer, he has been given hardly any food and water and has been forced to sleep on his bed’s metal frame, with no mattress or blanket. He has written several letters to national security minister Eldar Mahmudov to demand normal conditions of detention, without getting a reply.

Fatullayev was convicted over online posts attributed to him that said the Azerbaijani armed forces shared responsibility with their Armenian counterparts for the deaths of hundreds of civilians during an attack by Armenian troops in 1992 on the village of Khojali in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

A respected journalist, Fatullayev used to work for the Monitor, whose editor, Elmar Huseynov, was murdered in March 2005. With a daily print run of 30,000 copies, Realny Azerbaijan is well-known for criticising the government.

Serious fighting broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 1992. A cease-fire has been in effect since 1994 but no peace accord has ever been reached.

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