Jailed Azeri paper editor convicted on new charge
BAKU - A Baku court on Tuesday convicted a jailed newspaper editor
to two and a half years imprisonment under a drug possession
charge.
Fatullayev, the editor of two local newspapers, maintained in his closing statement that the new charge was baseless. The journalist believes that the investigation into the case was biased, an independent expertise was not carried out and that he was prosecuted based on false witness testimonies.
Fatullayev, whose defense lawyers demanded his acquittal, added that he was not expecting a fair ruling from the court, either.
Fatullayev, the editor-in-chief of the Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani-language daily Gundalik Azerbaijan, was sentenced in 2007 to eight-and-a-half years in prison on charges on defamation, incitement of ethnic hatred, threatening with terror and tax evasion. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ruling in April calling for Fatullayev’s immediate release, claiming that the newspaper editor’s rights had been violated. The authorities said they would appeal the ruling.
Fatullayev was found in possession of heroin in his jail cell last December. He claimed the drugs had been planted.
Fatullayev, the editor of two local newspapers, maintained in his closing statement that the new charge was baseless. The journalist believes that the investigation into the case was biased, an independent expertise was not carried out and that he was prosecuted based on false witness testimonies.
Fatullayev, whose defense lawyers demanded his acquittal, added that he was not expecting a fair ruling from the court, either.
Fatullayev, the editor-in-chief of the Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani-language daily Gundalik Azerbaijan, was sentenced in 2007 to eight-and-a-half years in prison on charges on defamation, incitement of ethnic hatred, threatening with terror and tax evasion. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ruling in April calling for Fatullayev’s immediate release, claiming that the newspaper editor’s rights had been violated. The authorities said they would appeal the ruling.
Fatullayev was found in possession of heroin in his jail cell last December. He claimed the drugs had been planted.
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