TWO AND A HALF YEARS IN PRISON FOR EDITOR WHO "INSULTED" AZERBAIJANIS
Source: Reporters Without Borders

Nieuwsbank , Netherlands
April 23 2007

Voicing concern about the growing number of press freedom violations in
Azerbaijan, Reporters Without Borders today called for the immediate
release of Eynulla Fatullayev, the editor of the weekly Realny
Azerbaijan and of the daily Gundelik Azerbaijan, who was given a
two-and-a-half year jail term by the Yasamal district court in Baku
on 20 April for "defaming" and "insulting" Azerbaijanis in an article
about murders of Azeris in Hojali town of Nagorno Karabakh. He was
taken off to prison at the end of the court hearing.

Fatullayev was already convicted of libel in 2002, when he was fined
10,000 euros. He used to be deputy editor of the Monitor, a weekly
known for criticising President Ilham Aliev’s government. Its founder
and editor, Elmar Huseynov, was murdered on 2 March 2005.

Uzeir Jafarov, a journalist with Gundelik Azerbaijan, was attacked
and beaten by two men as he was returning to his car after the 20
April court hearing. He said he recognised one of his assailants as
someone who had attended the Fatullayev trial.