Azernews.Az

The OSCE media freedom watchdog has condemned the trial against a man charged with attacking an Azerbaijani journalist.
Sergey Strekalin was sentenced on July 15 to one and a half years in prison for his self-confessed stabbing of journalist Agil Khalil of Azadlig newspaper in March 2008.
"This is the climax of a smear campaign orchestrated by law-enforcers against Khalil, his newspaper, and the remnants of critical journalism in Azerbaijan," the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, said.
Khalil faced two attacks this year. In the latest one, he was stabbed in the chest by two unidentified men as he left the editorial office late on March 13. The Prosecutor-General`s Office issued a statement on the outcomes of the investigation saying Khalil had been attacked by a homosexual in a jelousy outburst.
"I view the show trial against Strekalin as an attempt to protect the real stabbers," Haraszti said.
"To illustrate how far these allegations are, let me remind you, that after the prosecution stopped the case against the two officers who attacked Khalil in February, it waged a large-scale public campaign to discredit the journalist. To support their scenario, the prosecution ordered the major television channels to broadcast videos where Strekalin confessed to the stabbing of the journalist by posing as a jealous ex-lover," he said.
"The made-up charges against a self-confessing perpetrator are especially regrettable in a country that has overcome the era when prosecutors staged propaganda campaigns to discredit people critical of the government," said Haraszti.
Khalil said he had been followed for several days and maintained the attack was instigated by officials over his exposing articles. The journalist and his lawyer said Strekalin was not responsible for the attack, claiming the law enforcers were to blame.