Journalism Advocates Condemn Charges against Azerbaijani Editor

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling on Azerbaijani prosecutors to drop fresh drug possession charges against an already imprisoned independent newspaper editor.

Azerbaijani police officers assert they discovered on December 30 a small amount of heroin in the cell of Eynulla Fatullayev, who began serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence in 2007 following his conviction on a variety of charges, including on defamation, incitement of ethnic hatred and tax evasion. The next day, a Baku judge ordered Fatullayev to stand trial on the drug-possession charge. Rights groups, including CPJ and Human Rights Watch, contend that the original charges against the journalist were politically motivated. Conviction on the drug-possession charge could add three years to his sentence.

Fatullyev served as the editor of two of Azerbaijan's most outspoken newspapers, Realni Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan. He won CPJ's annual International Press Freedom Award in 2009.

The New York-based CPJ described the possession charge against Fatullayev as "trumped-up" in a January 4 statement. "We call on Azerbaijani authorities to drop this absurd new indictment against him," Nina Ognianova, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia coordinator, said in the statement.