INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY DISAPPOINTED FROM AZERBAIJAN

17:57 24/09/2009
Panorama.am

Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday’s decision by a Baku
appeal court to uphold the four-year prison sentence that Ganimat
Zahidov, the editor of the opposition daily Azadlig, received on 7
March on charges of `aggravated hooliganism’ and `assault and
battery.’

`The appeal court’s decision confirms our fears about violations of
basic freedoms and human rights in Azerbaijan,’ the press freedom
organisation said. `The authorities turned a deaf ear to the
international community’s appeals and chose to pursue their policy of
persecuting the press.’

Zahidov was convicted in connection with an incident outside a
publishing house on 7 November 2007 that appears to have been
orchestrated. When a young woman began to shout, a man intervened,
accused Zahidov him of insulting her, and started a fight with him. He
was arrested three days later and has been detained ever since.