Columnist gets two-year suspended sentence on questionable charge

Controversial newspaper columnist Mahal Ismayiloglu was given a two-year suspended prison sentence on 1 July on a possibly trumped-up charge of violent behaviour towards the maid of a neighbour who is a senior interior ministry official. The Absheron district court (in a Baku suburb) also banned Ismayiloglu, who has a heart ailment, from leaving the country and ordered him to pay the maid 30 manat (26 euros) in damages. Reporters Without Borders doubts the veracity of the charges brought against Ismayiloglu and fears the sentence constitutes yet another press freedom violation, as these are common in Azerbaijan. “We are sceptical about the court’s impartiality because Ismayiloglu writes controversial columns criticising the government and because the ban on leaving the country is an unusually severe sanction,” Reporters Without Borders said. “In the absence of additional evidence, we hope the sentence will be quashed.” Ismayiloglu denied the charges and said the court was politically motivated. “It is clear that everything in the court’s investigation down to the last detail was trumped-up and that this case is a clear warning to me because of my work,” he said. Ismayiloglu regards himself as an independent journalist. He used to be the editor of the pro-government newspaper Khalg gazeti but was fired in 2001 and began being very critical of the government in the columns he wrote for the newspaper Yeni Musavat. The maid of his neighbour, senior interior ministry official Vahid Imanov, brought the complaint against him on 27 June 2008. Ismayiloglu told Reporters Without Borders the allegations were fabricated and that the “sham” trial had been very humiliating. He added that he intended to appeal. The journalists – Mushfig Huseynov, Ganimat Zahidov and Eynulla Fatullayev – are currently in prison in Azerbaijan, which was ranked 150th out of 173 countries in the 2008 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.