Two editors at pro-opposition newspapers in Azerbaijan have recently been jailed, and a third is now likely to join them in prison. On November 6, Nazim Quliyev, editor-in-chief of Ideal, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison on charges of defamation. Seven days before, Eynulla Fatullayev, editor-in-chief of Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, got eight years for tax evasion, terrorism, and inciting ethnic and religious hatred.
On November 10, Ganimet Zahid, editor-in-chief of Azadlig (Freedom), was charged with hooliganism and assault. If convicted on both charges, he faces a three-year sentence. These are viewed within the diplomatic community as trumped-up charges.
US Ambassador Anne Derse said it appeared to be a "campaign . . . against opposition journalists". The European Union also characterised the sentence on Fatullayev as "disproportionate". He was charged after he published an article that alleged that Azerbaijani troops had been responsible, in part, for a massacre of ethnic Azeris during the war with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. (Via Eurasia.net)
