Pravda, Russia
Oct 30 2007

EDITOR SENTENCED OVER ARTICLE ABOUT POSSIBLE US ATTACK ON IRAN

Eynulla Fatullayev, an Azerbaijani newspaper editor was sentenced to
8½ years in prison. He sent to the press an article asserting that
the ex-Soviet nation could support a U.S. attack on neighboring Iran.

The Court for Grave Crimes convicted Eynulla Fatullayev, the founder
and editor of the Russian-language weekly Real Azerbaijan and the
Azeri-language daily Everyday Azerbaijan, on charges of making a
terrorist threat and inciting interethnic conflict.

Fatullayev denounced the court’s verdict as politically driven.

"That’s evidence of political pressure on me as a journalist," he said.

Fatullayev’s case is the latest in a series of prosecutions of
independent media figures in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation that
have raised concerns in the West.

The charges against Fatullayev were filed in response to the article
in Real Azerbaijan which claimed that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham
Aliev could support a U.S. military action against Iran.

The article, written under an alias, listed sites in Azerbaijan that
could be attacked by Iran if Baku were to support Washington in the
event of military action against Iran.

Aliev’s government has cultivated close ties with Washington and
contributed troops to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, and charges
against Fatullayev reflected official concerns about angering Iran.

Tehran has feared a U.S. attack and threatened to strike back at
any country that cooperates with it. The Azerbaijan government has
pledged its territory won’t be used for military action against
Iran, but people living along the border were nervous, pointing to
a U.S.-built radar facility and the upgrading of an airport near the
border with Iran. Both projects are U.S.-financed.

Both Fatullayev’s newspapers were forced to suspend publication in
the spring after authorities had evicted them from their offices.

Fatullayev has been in prison since April when he was sentenced to
2½ years in prison on charges of disseminating false information
related to the country’s six-year war with Armenia over the territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Previously, Fatullayev had received a two-year suspended sentence
for libeling a top law enforcement official.

Aliev, who took over from his father in a 2003 election denounced
by opponents as a sham, has faced persistent criticism over the
heavy-handed treatment of independent media and opposition parties.

–Boundary_(ID_guZxCrz0NVKUoL3hIRErOg)–