(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned the two-year suspended sentence, passed by the Yasamal district court in Baku on 26 September 2006, against the editor of “Realny Azerbaidjan” newspaper, Eynulla Fatullayev, for allegedly libelling and insulting interior minister Ramil Usubov. The court also ordered that Usubov should receive approximately US$11,500 in damages from Fatullayev […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned the two-year suspended sentence, passed by the Yasamal district court in Baku on 26 September 2006, against the editor of “Realny Azerbaidjan” newspaper, Eynulla Fatullayev, for allegedly libelling and insulting interior minister Ramil Usubov.
The court also ordered that Usubov should receive approximately US$11,500 in damages from Fatullayev and another US$6,000 from his newspaper. Usubov launched the suit over two articles published in July about his alleged financial links with Haji Mamedov, a former official who is believed to have killed Elmar Huseynov, the founder and editor of the “Monitor” newspaper.
“The court’s sentence is designed to impose silence on an entire newspaper simply because its journalists investigated the country’s leaders, which is precisely the kind of thing the press is supposed to do in a democracy,” Reporters Without Borders said.
Fatullayev was prosecuted under articles 147.2 and 148 of the criminal code, which are currently being used to prosecute other journalists, including Sakit Zahidov , despite recommendations by the OSCE and Council of Europe that Azerbaijan should eliminate all articles under which journalists cans be imprisoned for press offences (see IFEX alerts of 3 August and 26 June 2006).