A prominent journalist in Azerbaijan, Seymour Khazi, has been sentenced to five years in prison, reports the press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders (RWB).
It says he was convicted on Thursday (29 January) on “a trumped-up charge” of aggravated hooliganism after “a sham trial”.
Khazi, a reporter for the opposition daily Azadlig and presenter of a TV programme critical of the government broadcast from abroad, spent five months in pre-trial detention.
He was arrested in August after he was attacked in the street by a stranger, later identified as Maherram Hasanov. After an outcry, Hasanov was arrested.
At their trial, the prosecution requested a six-year sentence for Khazi and nine months for Hasanov, who ended up with a six-month jail term.
Khazi repeatedly denounced the charges as politically motivated and accused Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, and his chief of staff, Ramiz Mehdyev, of ordering his arrest. RWB said it was appalled by the absurdity of the verdict.
Outspoken journalists in the former Soviet republic have been among the victims of an unprecedented crackdown since summer 2014.
Source: Reporters Without Borders
