Azernews.Az

Well-known Azerbaijani writer and journalist Rafig Taghi was stabbed on Saturday evening by an unknown individual. Taghi was knifed six times in the neck and back while he was on his way home.

Taghi was hospitalized and underwent a surgery that lasted six hours. A doctor at the hospital was quoted as saying Taghi's injuries were no longer life-threatening. Two of his ribs were broken, his stomach and diaphragm injured, while his spleen had to be removed.

Authorities have launched a criminal case on charges of "infliction of severe damage to health".

Writer Shahbaz Khuduoglu told Radio Liberty's Azerbaijani Service that the attack was "an attempt to end his life". "The attacker’s purpose was to kill him. It was an organized attack."

In 2007, a district court in Baku sentenced Taghi to three years in jail for an article printed in 2006 that was deemed to be critical of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

The editor in chief of the Sanat newspaper in which the article appeared, Samir Sadagatoglu, was also sentenced to four years in prison. Both were released by presidential pardon later that year.

The article also prompted an Iranian cleric, Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, to place a fatwa on Taghi, calling for his death.

Baba Veziroglu, another of Taghi's colleagues, told Radio Liberty that he sees no motive for the attack.

"If the incident took place some years ago, I would have some suppositions," Veziroglu said. "But he has not written any controversial article recently. I think it is a mere hooliganism."