Azernews.Az

The son of a senior Iranian cleric who earlier placed a fatwa on Azerbaijani writer and newspaper columnist Rafiq Tagi has hailed his recent killing.

Muhammad Jawad Lankarani said in a statement posted on the website of his father, Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, "Since the killer of the man who insulted Islam and its prophet gladdened Muslims and fulfilled the orders of Allah, he will be generously rewarded by God."

The press service of the Iranian embassy in Baku has declined to issue a statement regarding Muhammad Jawad Lankarani’s statement.

Tagi, who was a critic of Iran and political Islam, died suddenly last Wednesday in the Baku hospital where he had been treated following the attack on him four days earlier. Doctors said Tagi died of inflammation of the lungs as a result of the multiple stab wounds he suffered.

Immediately after the attack, the Iranian embassy had issued a statement denying any Iranian involvement in the attack on Tagi. It claimed the U.S. had orchestrated the attack.

In comments to Radio Liberty early last week, Tagi said the attack might have been linked to an article he published earlier this month on the website of Radio Liberty's Azerbaijan Service titled "Iran and the Inevitability of Globalization." In the article, he sharply criticized the Iranian government and ridiculed Tehran's threats against Azerbaijan.

In 2007, a district court in Baku sentenced Tagi to three years in jail over an article published in 2006 that was deemed to be critical of Islam and Prophet Muhammad. He was granted a presidential pardon later that year.

Azerbaijani presidential aide Ali Hasanov said earlier Tagi "was never in conflict with the authorities". Hasanov also said it is unlikely for the killing to be a political murder, though it is too early to make any conclusions until this issue is clarified and the stabbers are found.

International media watchdogs, including Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have issued statements calling for a thorough and fair investigation into the writer's death.

France has called on Azerbaijani authorities to do everything in their power to quickly track down the killer and those who ordered the crime.