AZERBAIJAN: Eynulla Fatullayev to be held in isolation for two more months

9 March 2010

RAN 27/07 Update # 6

Eynulla Fatullayev, a journalist who has been in prison on political charges since April 2007, has since 31 December 2009, been held in isolation. Originally for two months, this isolation order has been extended for a further two months. In a letter from prison he writes that he fears for his life. He was moved to the Baku Investigative Prison where he is held incommunicado after heroin was allegedly found in his possession. Fatullayev claims that the drug was planted on him, and refers in his appeal to allegations that the death six years ago of a woman who testified against criminal activity within government had been murdered and her death disguised as an overdose. He fears that he may meet the same fate. The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN believes Fatullayev is detained solely for his writings critical of Azeri human rights and foreign policy. It is calling for his 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. International 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. The Committee to Protect Journalists refers to past cases where criminal charges, including those related to narcotics, have been used against political dissidents as a means of penalising them for their activism.

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.

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 Lichtenstein and English PEN Centres.

For background information, please see:
Previous WiPC alert on Eynulla Fatullayev
CPJ appeals for Fatullayev Release
IRFS Reports on Council of Europe Visit to Fatullayev