A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met with Azerbaijani Charge d'Affaires Khazar Ibrahim at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington, U.S., to deliver a letter carrying the names of more than 500 international journalists and demanding that the Azerbaijani authorities stop exerting pressure on mass media.

CPJ’s letter was delivered by CPJ board members Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Clarence Page, and Andrew Alexander; Executive Director Joel Simon; Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova, and Washington Representative Frank Smyth. Addressed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the letter urges the president to open a new page in his government’s policies toward the independent and opposition press by immediately releasing Fatullayev.

The delegation met with Charge d'Affaires Ibrahim for an hour. Ibrahim said Fatullayev had been provided due process and that the government would respect the court decisions in the case. But Ibrahim also promised that CPJ’s letter would be delivered to President Aliyev, and he invited a continued dialogue with CPJ.

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said after the meeting: “President Aliyev should demonstrate his government’s tolerance to scrutiny and criticism, and there is no louder or clearer message toward that end than ordering the release of our unjustly imprisoned colleague, Eynulla Fatullayev. No just and democratic society can be built without a vibrant, free press.”

Nina Ognianova stated that journalists are persecuted and imprisoned in Azerbaijan on the basis of trumped up charges. The satirist Sahit Zahidov was imprisoned after drugs had been planted on him.

T.P.