(RSF/IFEX) – On 10 April 2003, RSF protested over the authorities’ victimisation of Elmar Husseynov, founder and editor of the weekly magazine “Monitor”, who has been convicted of libel twice in the past two weeks. “He and the magazine are being seriously harassed by some officials, with the complicity of the courts, which use libel […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 10 April 2003, RSF protested over the authorities’ victimisation of Elmar Husseynov, founder and editor of the weekly magazine “Monitor”, who has been convicted of libel twice in the past two weeks.
“He and the magazine are being seriously harassed by some officials, with the complicity of the courts, which use libel laws to intimidate the independent media,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in letters to President Heidar Aliev and Justice Minister Fikret Mammadov. “We remind you that such methods violate the commitments Azerbaijan made when it became a member of the Council of Europe. We call on you to put a stop to such unjustified legal action against the independent press,” Ménard added.
On 4 April, a court in Yasamal fined Husseynov the equivalent of 4,500 times the national minimum wage (approx. US$4,950; 4,600 euros), under Articles 147.2 and 148 of the Criminal Code, for comparing citizens of the autonomous Azerbaijani republic of Nakhichevan to Sicilians in an article entitled “The Godfather”, which appeared in the magazine’s second issue of the year.
Hasan Zeynalov, Nakhichevan’s representative in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, sued Husseynov for “libel” and “harming the reputation and dignity” of local citizens in the republic. Zeynalov had earlier sued him in a civil court, which on 25 February ordered the editor to pay damages of 19,000 euros (approx. US$20,500) and to publish an apology.
Husseynov said the convictions are based on false premises. He believes the cases were brought forward because of “Monitor”‘s criticism of President Aliev’s foreign and domestic policies. He said he would appeal against the verdicts and take the Yasamal court’s decision to the European Court of Human Rights.
Husseynov and one of the magazine’s journalists, Eynulla Fatullayev, were fined 50 million manats (approx. US$10,800; 10,000 euros) on 29 July 2002 and ordered to publish an apology for a 6 April 2002 article criticising the army (see IFEX alert of 8 August 2002). Defence Minister Safar Abiyev had filed a complaint over the article in question. All the country’s state and privately-owned printers had refused to print the offending issue, which marked the magazine’s first appearance after a four-year absence.
In 2001, Husseynov was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for libelling Baku Mayor Hajibala Abutalibov (see alerts of 17 October and 21 September 2001).
