Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov on Wednesday welcomed the European Union's attention to the social and political developments in the country and said Azerbaijan "has always supported fair opinions and approaches".

Garalov was commenting on the European Parliament's resolution which "strongly" condemned the recent killing of Azerbaijani writer and journalist Rafig Tagi.

"We are familiar with EU recommendations concerning the investigation of the criminal case filed in connection with the premeditated murder of Rafig Tagi," he said in an interview with the Baku-based Trend news agency.

Tagi, a critic of Iran and political Islam, died at age 61 in a Baku hospital on November 23 four days after a brutal knife attack on him.

Tagi published an article in the newspaper Sanat in November 2006 entitled "Europe and Us" in which he argued that Islamic values were preventing Azerbaijan's integration into European institutions and stunting its democratic progress. Believers labeled Tagi’s story as an insult of Islamic values, while Iranian Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, who has since died, issued a fatwa calling for Tagi to be killed.

"As attorney general, I am in control of the investigation [into Tagi’s murder]," Prosecutor General Garalov said. "I regularly hear the reports of the investigative group and issue specific instructions to expose and prosecute the person who committed the crime."

Garalov said any illegal activity, including a premeditated killing, is inadmissible, adding that Tagi's murder is severely condemned not only by the Azerbaijani public but also by government officials.

Garalov said given that one of the theories of investigators regarding the case on Tagi's murder was associated with his article about Islam, an official appeal has been made to the Interior Ministry to take action over a threat that may be posed to Samir Huseynov (Sadagatoglu), chief editor of the Sanat newspaper.

"The security measures are being taken," Garalov said. "The district police departments have sent additional detachments [to guard the area] around the building, where members of Rafig Tagi's family reside…Moreover, the police department is ensuring Samir Huseynov's safety."

In 2007, a district court in Baku sentenced Tagi to three years in jail over the "Europe and Us" article. He was granted a presidential pardon later that year.

Tagi said shortly before his death that the attack on him might have been linked to another article, published in November 2011 on the website of Radio Liberty's Azerbaijan Service, which was titled "Iran and the Inevitability of Globalization." In the article, he sharply criticized the Iranian government and ridiculed Tehran's threats against Azerbaijan. Tagi said Iranian spies could have been behind the attack, an allegation that has neither been confirmed nor dismissed by investigators yet.

The European Parliament’s resolution, passed last Thursday, called on the authorities to carry out a thorough, prompt and effective investigation into Tagi’s death. The EP welcomed the move of the Azerbaijani government to set up a special working group to investigate the attack on Tagi and urged it "to use all resources to bring the criminals who committed this terrible crime to trial".

The EP also urged the Iranian authorities to remove the concept of "deserving of death" from the revised Penal Code currently under discussion in Iran’s parliament. It expressed "grave concern" that the existence of fatwas calling for the killing of an individual could be used as a defense in Iranian court by individuals accused of murder, on the basis that the victim "deserved to die". The resolution urged the Iranian government to provide all necessary cooperation to the Azerbaijani authorities during the investigation of Tagi’s murder.