January 20, 2010
His Excellency Ilham Aliyev
President of Azerbaijan
19 Istiqlaliyyat Street
Baku 370066, Azerbaijan
Hand-delivered to Charge d’Affaires Khazar Ibrahim at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington
Also via facsimile: +994 12 492 0625 and +994 12 492 3543
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to open a new page in your government’s policies toward the independent and opposition press, one that would demonstrate tolerance for the critical role of media in a democracy. No other action would contribute to this goal as much as the immediate release of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the now-closed independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan, who has been imprisoned since April 2007 on charges that range from defamation to terrorism.
Our research shows that the charges were not based on factual evidence and were pursued, instead, to retaliate against Fatullayev and silence his critical journalism.
The persecution of Fatullayev began after he wrote an article marking the second anniversary of the March 2005 murder of his former editor and mentor Elmar Huseynov. The piece, published in Realny Azerbaijan and headlined “Lead and Roses,” accused Azerbaijani authorities of deliberately obstructing the investigation into Huseynov’s killing, and ignoring evidence that could lead to the masterminds. Fatullayev said the assassination was carried out by a criminal group that included several Georgian citizens who had been hired by an unnamed official in Baku. Although Azerbaijani officials publicly claimed to be seeking Georgian citizens in the case, Fatullayev wrote that they had not provided authorities in Georgia with arrest warrants or supporting evidence. Huseynov’s killing remains unsolved.
Four days after Fatullayev’s piece was published, on March 6, 2007, his mother received an anonymous phone call. As a “wise woman,” the caller said, she should “talk sense” into her son or “we will send him to Elmar.” Fatullayev reported the threat to police, but it was he who came under intense investigation.
In April 2007, a Yasamal District Court judge convicted Fatullayev of defaming Azerbaijanis in an Internet posting that was falsely attributed to him. The posting, published on several Web sites, said Azerbaijanis bore some responsibility for the 1992 killings of residents of the restive Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to local news reports. Fatullayev was sentenced to a 30-month term and taken into custody immediately. With Fatullayev jailed, authorities evicted Realny Azerbaijan and Gündalik Azarbaycan from their Baku offices, citing purported fire safety and building code violations. Both soon stopped publishing.
More charges followed against Fatullayev. In October 2007, a judge in the Azerbaijani Court of Serious Crimes found Fatullayev guilty of terrorism, incitement to ethnic hatred, and tax evasion. Fatullayev’s sentences were consolidated, and he was ordered to serve a total of eight years and six months in prison.
The terrorism and incitement charges stemmed from a Realny Azerbaijan commentary headlined “The Aliyevs Go to War,” which analyzed possible consequences for Azerbaijan if the United States were to wage war with Iran. The piece sharply criticized your foreign policy. Although Fatullayev’s article was similar to many others published on the subject, only Fatullayev was charged and tried. The indictment alleged that international business people and diplomats had complained about the story, claiming to have been “frightened” by it. Yet no such witnesses ever testified in court, according to trial monitors. The tax case was filed after Fatullayev was jailed on other charges and his newspapers had been ousted from their offices, making it impossible to collect the records needed to mount a defense.
The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan denied Fatullayev’s appeal in June 2008, ending domestic legal avenues. Fatullayev appealed to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, which began reviewing the case in September 2008. The case is pending.
In a very disturbing development, authorities with the Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service searched Fatullayev’s cell on December 29, 2009, and claimed to have found 0.22 grams of heroin. Fatullayev, who was charged with drug possession and moved into isolation, has denied possessing any drugs. Based on Fatullayev’s account, as relayed to us by his attorney, and based on the government’s long record of persecuting the editor, CPJ believes this new drug charge to be fabricated.
The timing of the new charge points to manipulation. The charge was filed as the European Court was expected to set a hearing date in Fatullayev’s case. The journalist’s supporters believe this new charge was trumped up to ensure Fatullayev would remain in jail no matter what the European Court found. The drug possession charge could bring up to three years in prison.
Our research shows that Fatullayev has committed no criminal offense, and that he is being persecuted in reprisal for reporting that challenged the official investigation into Huseynov’s unsolved murder. In November 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists recognized Fatullayev’s courageous journalism by awarding him one of our International Press Freedom Awards. Hundreds of international journalists gathered to honor him and sign petitions seeking his release. You will find their names below.
We were relieved to hear of the December 26, 2009, release on humanitarian grounds of Bizim Yol reporter Mushfig Huseynov, whose health had deteriorated in state custody. We call upon Your Excellency to build on this positive step and to free Eynulla Fatullayev. Releasing our unjustly imprisoned colleague will reflect your commitment to the rule of law and to a just and tolerant democratic society.
Sincerely,
Joel Simon
Executive Director
Paul Steiger
Chairman, Committee to Protect Journalists
Petitioners:
Mohamed Abdel Dayem
Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Ingrid Abromovitch
Marguerite Adams
Steve Adler
Paige Alexander
Dave Allen
Ron Allen
Marcia Allina
Julianna Ams
Jenny Anderson
Cameron Lamar Anderson
Elena Anfimova
Audra Ang
Karin Annus
Makoto Araki
Snigdha Aramalla
Iason Athanasiadis
Justin Bachman
Justin Baer
Maziar Bahari
Justin Balding
Dean Baquet
Paul M. Barrett
Martin A. Barron
Ibrahim Barzak
Michael Bass
Candace N. Beck
Barbara Becker
Laurie Becklund
Shannon Bell
Amanda Bennett
Richard Berke
D.K. Berman
F.P. Bernasconi
Jake Bernstein
Fabio Bertoni
Erin M. Bicker
Ana Bickford
Robin Bierstedt
Hamid Biglari
Otis Bilodeau
Bruce Birenboim
George Black
Joan Boccardi
Louis D. Boccardi
Jason Boehmer
Carroll Bogert
Christopher Boies
David Boies
Mary Boies
Tamiko Bolton
Jane Boon
Catalina Botero
Christa Bowers
Graham Bowley
Liz Bowyer
Rose Brady
Diane Brady
Alasdair Breach
Margaret Brennan
Lisa Brock
Edward Broughton
Eve Burton
Jonathan Cain
Chris Calhoun
Anthony Camerino
Michael Cameron
Monica Campbell
Karyn Caplan
Virginia Carter
Caitlin Clarke
Steve Cody
Dan Colarusso
Laura Colby
Rachel Colley
Catherine Collins
Roberta Columbus
Ronald Columbus
Michael G. Connolly
Mehtap Cevher Conti
Jason Conti
Ann Cooper
Jessica Corcoran
David Corvo
Helen Coster
Sharona Coutts
Rob Cox
Steve Crabill
Bruce Cranston
Gordon Crovitz
Anthony Currie
Kathleen Currie
Stephanie Dahle
Melissa Daly
Alessandro d’Ansembourg
Siobhan Darrow
Eric Dash
Julie B. Davis
Lisa L. Davis
Bernd Debusmann
Julianne Deitch
Ronald Dennett
Liam Denning
Frank Denton
Salvatore DiMartino
Justin Dini
Thomas Distler
Allan Dodds Frank
Courtney Dolan
Steven Donziger
Perri Dorset
Leonard Doyle
Maggie Drucker
Clare Duffy
Michael DuValley
Madeline Earp
Elisabeth Eaves
Thomas Edsall
Mark Egan
Michelle Ehrlich
Daniel Eilemberg
Jesse Eisinger
Maka Ekizashvili
Sarah Ellison
Stephen Engelberg
Wendy Engler
David Enrich
Bernard Estrade
David Faber
Seth Faison
Margaret Farley
Jeremy Feigelson
Sarah Feigelson
Esther Fein
Robert Feinberg
Jonas Max Ferris
Robin Fields
Kyle Fink
Sheri Fink
Ian Fisher
Laura Fitzpatrick
Mary Laurence Flynn
Irene Foxhall
Alix M. Freedman
Sasha Frere-Jones
Robert Friedman
Josh Friedman
David Friend
Sonya K. Fry
Archil Gachechiladze
Ken Garcia
Alexis Gelber
Barton Gellman
Sandra Genelius
Aparisim “Bobby” Ghosh
Sarah Gilbert
Nancy Giles
Christine McAuley Glancey
Tom Glocer
Maarit Glocer
Tom Gooch
James C. Goodale
Toni K. Goodale
Alice Gottesman
Cheryl Gould
Gail C. Gove
Lamar Graham
Victoria Graham
David Granz
Lisa Green
Steve Greenblatt
Meredith Greene Megaw
Peter R. Greiff
Stone Grissom
Sarah Gross
Lisa Grunwald
Jose Luis Gutierrez
Janet Guyon
Larry Hackett
Ian Hague
John E. Haire
Kathy Haire
Neil Hallsworth
Christopher J. Hamilton
Mona Hamouly
David Handschuh
Raymond Happy
Victoria Harmon
Jenny Harris
Laurie Hays
Janet Heard
Barbara Held
Sharon Held
Lawrence Herman
Kath and Les Hinton
Susan Hirsch
Brett Holey
Chris Hondros
Caroline Horn
Julie Horowitz
Racheal Howard
Deborah Howell
Stephen Hubbell
Katherine Hunt-Morr
Felip Ibarguen
Susana L. Ibarguen
Alberto Ibarguen
Laura Ibarguen
Diego Ibarguen
Vicki Ingrassia
Lawrence Ingrassia
Paul I. Ingrassia
Steven Isenberg
Yves Istel
Mark Jackson
Rebecca Jenkin
Dale J. Jenkins
Elizabeth Jensen
Charisse Jones
Elizabeth Joseph
Jana Mila Juginovic
Joseph Kahn
Karen Kaiser
T.E. Kandel
Mryon Kandel
Peter Kaplan
Refet Kaplan
Stuart Karle
Theresa Karle
Sarah Katt
Theresa Keller
John Kelly
James Kelly
Julie King
Duncan King
Daniel Klaidman
Jonathan Klein
Athelia Knight
Gary Knight
Rika Kobayshi
John Koblin
Richard Kosinski
Philip A. Kuntz
Koji Kurata
Kamel Labidi
Una LaMarche
Gara LaMarche
J.G. Lambert
Cleve Langton
Patricia Langton
Sarah R. Larson
Todd Larson
Peter Lattman
Carlos Lauria
Stella Lee
Michelle Lee
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
Alexis Lenos
Robert Lenzner
Jonathan Lethem
Andrew Levine
Mia Lewis
Anthony Lewis
Eliza Lewis
David Lewis
Madeleine Lim
Christine Lin
Steven Lipin
Amy Lipin
Joanne Lipman
Betty Liu
Simon Locke
Andrew Longstreth
Carolee Lowry
Sarah Lubman
Aaron Lucchetti
Abraham Lustgarten
Jodie Lustgarten
Stacey Lutzker
Jacki Lyden
John R. MacArthur
Paige Magness
C. Peter Magrath
Jeremy Main
James Malkin
Joan Malkin
Penelope Manis
Megan Marcus
John Marcus
Benjamin E. Marks
Cristina Martinez
Francesca Martini
Michael Massing
Tyler Mathisen
Alejandra Matus
Kelly McAndrew
Andrew McCormack
David E. McCraw
Dagen McDowell
Gregory McGurdy
Stephanie N. Mehta
Sheryl A. Mendez
Sarah Bruning Meron
Ted Merz
Carlos Meza
Mark Miller
Terrence Miller
Andrea Mitchell
Pat Mitchell
Ellen Molle
David A. Montminy
Ellen Moskowitz
Lisa Mueller
Kristen Mulvihill
Enrique Munoz
Boris Munoz
Victor Navasky
Anne Navasky
Patricio Navia
Yvette Neier
Anne Nelson
Martha Nelson
Stuart Newberger
Marcy Newberger
Donald Newhouse
Jane Nicholls
Janice Nittoli
Kate Nocera
Joseph Nocera
Shirim Nothenberg
Melissa Offenhartz
Nina Ognianova
Cindy O’Hagan
Katherine O’Hearn
Winnie O’Kelly
James O’Neill
Miguel O’Neill
Ellen Oppenheim
Jeffrey A. Oppenheim
Peter Osnos
Kate O’Sullivan
Barclay Palmer
Sandra Panem
Claudia Parsons
Benjamin Pauker
Sarah Paulsworth
Norman Pearlstine
Sarah Pekow
F.J. Pensiero
Charles Perkins
Richard Perry
Barbara Peterson
Jo Petherbridge
Thomas Pica
Sara M. Pines
Spencer Platt
Ellen Pollock
Hilary Potkewitz
Lynn Povich
Christopher Power
Emma Powers
Alison Preece
Matthew Price
Anna Prior
Brett Pulley
Jane Bryant Quinn
Eric Rabe
Joe Raedle
Meghan Rafferty
Cathy Raines
Archana Rajan
Lova Rakotomalala
Jessica Ramos
David Remnick
Vasil Revishili
James Reynolds
Tom Rhodes
David Rhodes
Emma Rhodes
Colette T. Rhoney
R. Bruce Rich
Megan Rich
Teresa Riordan
Naziha Rejiba
Natalie Robins
Samuel Robinson
David Rohde
Merrill Rose
Richard Roth
Dan Roth
Sandy Rowe
Elizabeth Rubin
Robert Russell
David Saber
Roxana Saberi
Maria Salazar-Ferro
John Sammis
Alexander Samuelson
Joaquin Sapien
Kem Sawyer
Sam Schechaer
Amy Schiller
Chad Schlegel
William E. Schmidt
Dawn Schneider
Lana Schupbach
Harold E. Schwartz
Thomas Sclafani
Ciro Scotti
Laura Secor
Henny Sender
Brendan Sexton
Brian A. Shactman
Ryan G. Shaffer
Randy L. Shapiro
James Shapiro
Joan Shapiro
Danielle Shapiro
Jacob Shapiro
Bill Shapiro
Elizabeth W. Shaw
Stephan Shepard
Tasneem Shikan Novak
Gary Silverman
Calvin Sims
Brett Singer
Randi Singer
Eve Smith
Harry Smith
Adam Smith
Frank Smyth
Heather R. Solow
George Soros
Dan Southerland
Alice Forbes Spear
Fiona Spruill
Sharon Stack
Brian W. Steel
Bernard L. Stein
Gabriella Stern
Michael L. Stern
James B. Stewart
Brent Stirton
Joanna Stone Herman
Muzaffar Suleymanov
Neeti Sundaresh
Bill Sweeney
Stephanie Sy
David Sylvia
Fiona Tarazi
George Tchiladze
Zephyr Teachout
Mary Thompson
Nicholas Thompson
Kendra Thompson
Imogene Thomson
Luke Thomson
Jack Thomson
James Tobin
Richard Tofel
Zang Toi
Laura Trevelyan
Anton Troianovski
Carll Tucker
Josh Tyrangiel
Eric Umansky
Lucas van Praag
Imre Lieuwe Vellenga
Peter J. Verrengia
Karl Vick
Amy Virship
Christina von Bargen
Felix Von Salmon
Abdul Waheed Wafa
Thomas Wallace
Ping Wang
Scott Wapner
Sarah WayHenry Elliot Weinstein
Jiang Weiping
Jacob Weisberg
Melissa Weisberg
Bari Weiss
Allison Werder
Shelby White
Anna White
Mark White
Daniel Whitman
Summer Wilkie
Scott Wilkins
Michael Williams
James Willse
Simon Wilson
Kurt Wimmer
Lauren Wolfe
Betty Wong
Richard B. Woodward
Suzanne Woolley
Minky Worden
Patrick Worsnip
Ellen Wulfhorst
Carol Joe Yen
D.R. Young
Miriam A. Young
Emma Zghal
Yan Zhao
Jeffrey Zorabedian
Laurence Zuckerman