Azerbaijan
Wrongly imprisoned journalist still not released, fears for safetyPosted Feb 23 2011
An Azeri man displays a newspaper with a portrait of Azeri journalist Elmar Huseynov, killed on March 2, 2005. In his work, Fatullayev was trying to report on the unsolved murder of Huseynov, his former colleague.
Investigative journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, editor-in-chief of Realniy Azerbaydjan and Gundelik Azerbaycan newspapers, has still not been released, despite a European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) ruling that called for his immediate release in April 2010.
Earlier this month, Fatullayev requested a transfer from the prison where he is currently incarcerated to a prison that houses former court employees and law-enforcement employees, according to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX).
The IFEX report states that Fatullayev “questions what sense there is in keeping him in the same prison with serious criminals and proponents of organized crime.” As a journalist, Fatullayev’s work was focused on the workings of Azerbaijan’s criminal underworld. The report also mentions that Fatullayev plans to go on a hunger strike if his request is denied.
According to a previous Global Journalist report, Fatullayev was sentenced to eight and a half years of prison on charges of “criminal defamation” and “fomenting terrorism.”
While still serving time, Fatullayev was sentenced to two years and six months in prison “on a trumped-up charge of drug possession” in July 2010, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
On Jan. 25, 2011, the Baku Appeals Court in the country’s capital, denied his appeal of the drug-possession charge, CPJ reported. The EHCR ruling also ordered a compensation of $38,481 to be paid to Fatullayev’s family. However, the family has been unable to access the money because government authorities sent it to Fatullayev’s bank account, which has been frozen since his arrest in 2007, according to CPJ.
Azerbaijan currently ranks 152 out of 178 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2010 Press Freedom Index.