In Azerbaijan, embattled editor jailed for libel and insult

Nieuwsbank , Netherlands
from Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
April 21 2007

New York, April 20, 2007 –The Committee to Protect Journalists
condemns today’s imprisonment in Baku of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor
of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the
Azeri-language daily Gundalik Azarbaycan.

The Yasamal District Court convicted Fatullayev on charges of libeling
and insulting Azerbaijanis in an Internet posting that was attributed
to the editor. But Fatullayev, who is known for his critical reporting
on government affairs, said he never made the comment and that the
case had been manufactured to silence him.

Under Article 147.2 of Azerbaijan’s penal code, Fatullayev was ordered
to serve 18 months, according to the news agency Turan. He was jailed
immediately after the court hearing, becoming the fifth journalist
behind bars in Azerbaijan.

"The jailing of Eynulla Fatullayev is part of a pattern of increasing
repression of independent media in Azerbaijan, often through
politically motivated defamation cases," CPJ Executive Director Joel
Simon said. "It is outrageous that he should be imprisoned for a
statement he says he never made. He should be freed immediately."

Tatyana Chaladze, head of the Azeri Center for Protection of Refugees
and Displaced Persons, filed civil lawsuit in February and a criminal
complaint in April against Fatullayev. Chaladze cited a remark
attributed to the editor that said Azerbaijanis were responsible
for the 1992 massacre of residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh town of
Khodjali, according to local press reports. The statement was a
"deliberate effort to defame Khodjali residents and veterans of
the Karabakh war," the independent daily Zerkalo quoted Chaladze as
saying. The Yasamal District Court ruled in favor of Chaladze’s civil
claim on April 6, ordering Fatullayev to pay damages of 10,000 manats
(US$11,600), Turan reported.

The remark was first published on the Web site Aztricolor, although
the precise posting date was unclear. In a March interview with CPJ,
Fatullayev said he never made the Khodjali statement, which was later
posted on other Web sites. After the statement was circulated widely
on the Internet, unidentified protesters, up to 80 at a time, started
picketing the offices of Realny Azerbaijan and Gundalik Azarbaycan,
he said. The protesters would come in buses to the papers’ premises
and protest for 30 to 40 minutes at a time, throwing eggs and stones
while shouting for Fatullayev’s expulsion, according to local press
reports. Dozens of police officers, Fatullayev told CPJ, stood by. He
said he believed authorities were behind the protests and had used the
trumped-up case to prevent him from reporting on government corruption
and the unsolved murder of former colleague Elmar Huseynov.

Realny Azerbaijan is the successor of the opposition weekly Monitor,
which was shut down after the March 2005 contract-style assassination
of Huseynov. Like its predecessor, Realny Azerbaijan is known for
its critical reporting.

On March 6, four days after he reported that high-ranking Azeri
officials ordered Huseynov’s killing, Fatullayev received a death
threat, but authorities did not investigate it or provide him with
personal protection.

Fatullayev told CPJ in March that his position on the Karabakh
conflict was outlined in a 2005 article headlined "The Karabakh
Diary." Fatullayev, then an investigative reporter with the Monitor,
traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh in February 2005 to interview leaders
of the region’s unrecognized government. He received threats from
Azerbaijani nationalists who opposed his trip. His piece said that
constructive dialogue is the only way to alleviate tensions between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh broke out during the first years of the Soviet Union’s
collapse. Inter-ethnic fighting escalated when Nagorno-Karabakh’s
parliament voted to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) in
December 1991. (NKR is not recognized internationally.) A ceasefire
was negotiated in 1994, but the territorial dispute lingers today.

According to official statistics, 613 people were killed in Khodjali
on the night of February 25-26, 1992, when heavily armed Armenian
forces stormed and captured the town.

–Boundary_(ID_joZCpOOXquC09 D8wH5VhRg)–