Canadian Press
Jan 5 2010

Jailed Azerbaijani editor faces new charges as European rights court
agrees to hear his case

By Aida Sultanova (CP)

BAKU, Azerbaijan ‘ A jailed Azerbaijani newspaper editor faces new
charges as Europe’s human rights court has agreed to hear his case,
his lawyer said Tuesday.

Eynulla Fatullayev has been charged with drug possession after heroin
– which he claims was planted – was found during a search of his cell,
lawyer Isakhan Ashurov said.

The Penitentiary Service said the drugs were found Dec. 29 in the
lining of Fatullayev’s jacket and under the insole of his shoe.

Fatullayev, the founder and editor of the Russian-language weekly Real
Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Everyday Azerbaijan, is
serving an 8 1/2-year sentence over an article saying the former
Soviet republic could support a U.S. attack on neighbouring Iran.

Fatullayev called the October 2007 conviction politically driven.

Advocacy groups connected the new charges to the September decision of
the European Court of Human Rights to hear Fatullayev’s case.

"Even if there is a positive decision from the European Court,
Fatullayev could face three years of imprisonment under the new
charges," the groups said in a joint statement.

The prosecution of Fatullayev and other independent journalists in the
oil-rich country has raised concerns in the West.

Fatullayev was convicted after an article published in early 2007 in
Real Azerbaijan claimed that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev could
support 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.

The Azerbaijan government, which has cultivated close ties to
Washington, had pledged its territory would not be used for military
action against Iran, but people living along the border were nervous,
pointing to a U.S.-built radar facility and an airport near the
Iranian border that was upgraded with U.S. money.

Fatullayev has been in prison since April 2007 when he was sentenced
to 2 1/2 years on charges of disseminating false information related
to the country’s six-year war with Armenia over the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh. His sentences are being served concurrently.