Azernews.Az

BAKU – OSCE’s chairman Audronius Azubalis and media freedom representative Dunja Mijatovic have welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decree to release newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev.

"This is a strong signal for the whole OSCE region and I encourage all OSCE participating states to honor their commitments to freedom on the media and release all imprisoned media workers," Azubalis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said in a statement posted on the OSCE website on Thursday.

Mijatovic in turn said "this is a long awaited day for freedom of speech and freedom of the media and most importantly for Fatullayev, his family and colleagues in Azerbaijan and abroad."

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 inciting ethnic hatred, instigation of terror and tax evasion.

He claims the charges were related to his articles he had written critical of the authorities.

After the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Fatullayev should be released and paid compensation, a Baku court annulled initial charges of terrorism and tax evasion but handed down a new two-and-a-half year sentence on drug possession charges.

US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza has also welcomed Fatullayev’s release, saying it was "great news". Bryza told journalists that his release "heralds a new era of reforms in Azerbaijan".

"You can’t think of a better start to the preparations for the Eurovision 2012 contest [to be hosted by Azerbaijan]," Bryza said.

Besides Fatullayev, President Aliyev’s pardon decree, enacted on Thursday on the occasion of the Day of Republic, May 28, affects 89 inmates, including former deputy mayor of Baku Eldaniz Lahijov and Anar Namazov, the nephew of former health minister Ali Insanov.