The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) addressed a letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, demanding that the journalist Eynulla Fatullayev be immediately released.

The letter was actually sent to the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Washington on January 20. Over 500 journalists put their signatures to the letter. The signors called on the Azeri leader to open a new page in his policy toward the free and independent press by releasing Fatullayev.

Voice of America reported that CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon stated that democracy is impossible without freedom of the press.

Fatullayev was sentenced to eight and a half years of imprisonment on charges of terrorism, tax avoidance and ethnic strife. The CPJ states the charges were trumped up and insists on a fair trial.

The CPJ accuses the Azeri authorities of taking reprisals against the journalist for his article charging the authorities with putting obstacles to the investigation into the murder of the journalist Elmar Guseynov in 2005.

T.P.