AZERBAIJAN: JAILED JOURNALIST SEEKS PARDON
Mina Muradova, a freelance reporter based in Baku.
EurasiaNet, NY
rticles/eav100505ru.shtml
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Facing a fresh charge of tax evasion, jailed Azerbaijani newspaper
editor Eynulla Fatullayev has petitioned Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev for a pardon and appealed to the European Court of Human Rights
for a ruling on his case.
Fatullayev, editor of the now-closed Realny Azerbaijan and
Azeri-language Gùndalik Azarbaycan newspapers, was arrested in April
2007 on charges of slander, and accused of "insulting" the Azerbaijani
people. The case began after Realniy Azerbaijan published a statement
by an Armenian army officer who said that Armenian forces had kept
open an exit corridor for civilians during the 1992 Khojali massacre
in Nagorno-Karabakh. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].
The most recent charge against the journalist, tax evasion, came on
September 4, after questioning of Realny Azerbaijan and Gùndalik
Azarbaycan staff by the Ministry of National Security agents. The
ministry claims that Fatullayev concealed 242,522 manats (roughly
$279,000) from Realny Azerbaijan’s income.
The charge is the third against the newspaper editor.
In July, the ministry accused Fatullayev of inciting ethnic and
religious hatred, and charged him with terrorism.
Fatullayev defense attorney Isakhan Ashurov told EurasiaNet that
preliminary investigations into the terrorism and tax evasion
charges have now ended, and that the cases are being transferred
to the Court on Serious Crimes for consideration. If found guilty,
the journalist would face a potential five to eight years in prison
on the terrorism charges and six months in prison on the tax evasion
charges, Fatullayev’s attorneys say.
Fatullayev was sentenced to 30 months in prison in April on the
original slander charges. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight
archive].
In late August, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan rejected an appeal.
Within the Azerbaijani legal system, a presidential pardon has now
become Fatullayev’s last option for release from jail.
In a September 9 appeal, the journalist asked for a pardon from
President Aliyev "because the criminal proceedings which were
instituted against him were unfair and ungrounded," Ashurov told
EurasiaNet. The likelihood of Fatullayev receiving that pardon,
however, is unknown.
In a September 7 press conference in Baku, the Council of Europe’s
visiting commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, said that
he had discussed the imprisonment of seven Azerbaijani journalists
with government officials, but did not receive a clear response about
future intended actions. Hammarberg said that he had also asked
President Aliyev to issue a pardon for the journalists. President
Aliyev’s office could not be reached for comment.
In early August, one senior presidential administration official,
however, dismissed the contention that "bringing some individuals to
trial" constitutes media repression.
"There is no reason for concern," said Ali Hasanov, head of the
administration’s political policy department, APA news agency
reported. "The guarantors of the freedom of speech are the state and
the president. In the future, we will take actions to increase state
care for the media."
Parliamentarian Vagif Samedoglu, a member of the Council of Europe’s
Commission on Human Rights, told APA news agency on September 11 that
the next presidential pardon decree is not expected before the end
of September.
Meanwhile, Fatullayev’s attorney is appealing in the international
arena. After the Supreme Court bid failed, an appeal was submitted
to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on September
10, Ashurov said. The lawyer claims that an "exceptional measure of
punishment" was used against Fatullayev by ordering his arrests on
grounds of alleged terrorism, while he was already under arrest on
the original charges.
The seven journalists in jail currently in Azerbaijan have sparked
rising concern from international organizations. All of the reporters
are in prison on charges of "defamation" or "incitement." All work
for non-government-controlled or pro-opposition media outlets.
On September 6, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) issued a statement that called on the government to stop the
"persecution" of Fatullayev. "Not content with having locked up
Eynulla Fatullayev, the Azerbaijani authorities are now attempting
to throw away the key by piling up politically motivated criminal
charges against him," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.
In a June 2007 report to the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe Permanent Council, Representative on Freedom of the Media
Miklñs Haraszti urged that the seven journalists be released and that
"persecution of the remaining independent media" stop.
The OSCE has also pushed for changes that would make libel, defamation
and verbal insults civil rather than criminal code violations. A
draft law on the topic has been under consideration in parliament
since late 2006.
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