Judicial persecution of newspaper editor continues

Reporters Without Borders is stunned by the three-year jail sentence that public prosecutor Elchin Nagiyev requested for imprisoned newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev on 30 June on the trumped-up charge of illegal possession of a narcotic, namely the 220 mg of heroin supposedly found in his clothes and in his prison cell on 29 December. Arrested in 2007 for criticising the authorities, Fatullayev was sentenced the following year to a total of more than eight years in prison. The prosecutor’s request for an additional sentence comes two months after the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling on 22 April calling for his immediate release on the grounds that his conviction was illegal and politically-motivated, and a violation of freedom of expression. Although the ruling was binding, the authorities did not comply. Reporters Without Borders firmly believes that this is a case of an independent journalist who angered the authorities and who has as a result been subjected to political and judicial persecution with the sole aim of silencing him. The European Court of Human Rights decision, Fatullayev’s hunger strike and the international pressure for his release have changed nothing. The authorities have turned a deaf ear to all the demonstrations and appeals. If the court accepts the prosecutor’s request, Fatullayev could spend the next three years of his life in a top-security jail. The trial is continuing but Fatullayev is already convinced that “the authorities want to keep me in prison for as long as possible.” Reporters Without Borders shares the view that all the measures taken against Fatullayev are politically-motivated. The parliamentary elections due to be held in November were almost certainly a factor in the decision to press new charges. The authorities clearly wanted to prevent one of their leading critics from covering the election campaign and the polling.