Azerbaijan: Fatullayev to be held in isolation for two more months
Published: March 9, 2010
*** UPDATE (22 April 2010): English PEN were delighted to learn that the European Court of Human Rights has today ordered Fatullayev's immediate release. For more information, please click here. ***
Eynulla Fatullayev, a journalist who has been in prison on political charges since April 2007, has since 31 December 2009 been held in isolation. He was moved to the Baku Investigative Prison where he is held incommunicado after heroin was allegedly found in his possession. Originally for two months, this isolation order has reportedly been extended for a further two months. Fatullayev claims that the drug was planted on him, and in a recent letter from prison explains his fears that this is the first step in a plan to kill him. He refers to allegations that six years ago a woman who testified against criminal activity within government was murdered and her death disguised as an overdose. He fears that he may meet the same fate.
English PEN believes that Eynulla Fatullayev is detained solely for his writings critical of Azeri human rights and foreign policy and is calling for his immediate release.
Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of Russian language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri language weekly Gündelike Azerbaijan, was sentenced to eight and a half years on charges of defamation, terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred and tax evasion. PEN and other human rights monitors consider him to be imprisoned because of his history of human rights reporting, including an article he published in his newspaper which argued that the Azeri support of United States foreign policy would make an attack on Azerbaijan by Iran more likely. The sentence also encompassed charges of tax evasion. At the time of the sentencing in October 2007, Fatullayev was already serving a sentence of two and a half years on charges of libel and insult for an article which he denied writing. Fatullayev has a history of challenging the Azeri authorities and many believe the charges are another way of silencing him.
Fatullayev had been serving his conviction since April 2007 at Prison #12, in Baku, until 30 December 2009, when guards alleged to have found in his prison cell 0.22 grams of heroin. On 31 December he was taken to the Garadag District Court, where after a fifteen-minute hearing, a judge ordered that for the next two months he should be held in an isolation cell while he awaits trial on drug possession charge. If found guilty, Fatullayev could be imprisoned for further three years. On 1 March, this detention order was extended for a further two months until 30 April.
On 3 March 2009, it was reported that Fatullayev had sent an appeal from prison, addressed to the Azeri Internal Affairs Ministry, the head of the prison services and international human rights groups saying that he fears that there may be a plot to assassinate him under the pretext of a drugs overdose. In his appeal, he refers to the case of Rena Nasibova, a witness in an investigation an alleged criminal gang said to be active within the Ministry of the Interior. She was found dead in July 2004. Initial claims that she was a drug addict and had died of an overdose were later to have been found to be false, and that she had died of suffocation, a murder linked to her role in the criminal investigation. (For more information, please click here.)
On 25 February 2010, Peter Semneby, the European Union's Special Representative for the South Caucasus, along side other diplomats, visited Fatullayev in prison, telling him that they had made several appeals for his release to the Azeri authorities. The Council of Europe High Commissioner on Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, also visited him in prison on 4 March. Despite these high level representations, Fatullayev remains detained.
Eynulla Fatullayev is Honorary Member of English and Lichtenstein PEN Centres.
For background information, please see:
CPJ appeals for Fatullayev Release
IRFS Reports on Council of Europe Visit to Fatullayev
Please send appeals:
• Expressing concern about the new drug possession charges against Eynulla Fatullayev, and demanding he is tried fairly and impartially;
• Pointing out that the eight and half year sentence against Fatullayev is for his legitimate activities as a reporter, and that he should be immediately and unconditionally released in accordance with Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Azerbaijan is a state party;
• Calling on the Azeri authorities to take urgent measures to ensure the safety of journalists and freedom of expression.
Appeals to:
President
Ilham Aliyev
Office of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic
19 Istiqlaliyyat Street
Baku AZ1066
Azerbaijan
Fax: 994 12 492 0625
Minister of Internal Affairs
Lt.-Gen. Ramil Usubov
Ministry of Internal Affairs
Husu Hajiyev Street 7, 370005 Baku
Azerbaijan
Fax: 994 12 492 45 90
Please also send copies of your appeal to the Azerbaijan Embassy in the UK:
H.E. Mr Fakhraddin Gurbanov
4 Kensington Court
London
W8 5DL