Azernews.Az

The 2006 fatwa by a senior Iranian cleric calling for the killing of Rafiq Tagi, a writer and journalist in Azerbaijan and a statement by his son applauding Rafiq Tagi’s recent killing in Baku by an unknown person highlight the urgent need for reform of the Iranian Penal Code, Amnesty International said.

Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, who has since died, issued the fatwa calling for Rafiq Tagi to be killed after Rafiq Tagi published an article in a newspaper in November 2006 entitled ‘Europe and Us’. The article compared Islam and Christianity in terms strongly favouring the latter, and argued for Azerbaijan’s identity to be seen, in an ethical and philosophical sense, as closely linked to Europe.

The publication of the article was quickly followed by demonstrations in the Azerbaijani village of Nardaran, in which demonstrators reportedly made death threats against Rafiq Tagi and the newspaper’s editor Samir Sadaqatoglu.

The protests spread to Iran, which has a substantial ethnic Azerbaijani minority, and culminated in the issuing of the fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, stating that the killing of both the article’s author and the editor was "necessary".