Journalists' rights worsen in Azerbaijan, says HRW

"The steady rise of politically motivated defamation charges and violent attacks against critical journalists is clearly aimed at silencing critical voices in Azerbaijan," said Holly Cartner, the group's director for Europe and Central Asia, in a statement Thursday. A court in Baku on April 20 jailed Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the independent newspapers Realni Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, for "criminal libel" and "insult," the New York-based group (HRW) said.

Fatullayev denied the charges, which were based on an Internet posting in which he was alleged to have blamed Azerbaijanis for a 1992 massacre in a village in Nagorno Karabakh, a region disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a war over the territory in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated 35,000 lives and caused about a million people on both sides to flee their homes.

The person bringing the charges "alleged that the statement defamed the village's residents." "Fatullayev's prosecution was politically motivated, and he should be immediately released from custody," Cartner said. The journalist is known for his criticism of Azeri officials and for exposing government corruption. Fatullayev is the fifth journalist to be imprisoned in Azerbaijan in the last 10 months, HRW said. AFP

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