Activists from various groups gathered to support Eynulla Fatullayev © Amnesty International
By Steve Ballinger, press officer at Amnesty International in the UK.
In the burning midday sun, around 60 activists from Amnesty International, Article 19, English PEN and Index on Censorship took their places outside the Azerbaijan embassy in London to demand the immediate release of jailed journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.
A letter in the Guardian newspaper today (co-signed by writers Philip Pullman, Monica Ali and Alan Ayckbourn, among others) also asked readers who believe in freedom of speech to come to the demonstration. The BBC Russian service were also in attendance at the demo today.
Together we chanted slogans in English and Azeri, demanding Eynulla’s release and urging that the charges against him are dropped and that the right to freedom of expression in Azerbaijan is respected.
We hope the demo showed the volume and depth of feeling in the UK about this case, to show support for Eynulla, his family and independent journalists in Azerbaijan. Hopefully it will prompt a response from the Azerbaijan authorities to this public pressure.
Protesters handed in a letter to the embassy and received an assurance that our concerns would be relayed back to Baku, and responded to. A statement of thanks from Eynulla Fatullayev’s father, for the continuing support of human rights campaigners for Eynulla’s case, was also read out to the demonstrators.
In April 2007, after years of harassment – including beatings, threats and libel suits – Eynulla Fətullayev was arrested and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for libel.
In October 2007 he was sentenced on further trumped-up charges of terrorism, tax evasion and incitement of ethnic hatred, and is now serving a total sentence of eight and a half years’ imprisonment.
Sabine Zwiers and Aik Meeuwse deliver a petition to the Azerbaijani Embassy in the Netherlands. © Amnesty International
There was no plausible evidence to back up the charges, and Amnesty International believes that his imprisonment is an attempt to silence his independent reporting. To add insult to injury, he is now being tried on further charges of drugs possession (in prison) – which once again we believe to be entirely fabricated.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Eynulla Fatullayev has been wrongfully imprisoned and that he should be released. Azerbaijan is obliged to comply with European Court of Human Rights’ judgments once they are final, and has until 22 July to appeal. So far they have sought to undermine the court, with Chingiz Esgerov, Azerbaijan’s representative to the ECtHR, argued that “the ECtHR has no authority to give orders to the courts of other countries” and “the country’s legislation does not envision the release of a prisoner only on a basis of the ECtHR.”
After all the celebrations of great human rights journalism at the Amnesty International Media Awards in London on Tuesday – Eynulla won the Special Award for Journalism Under Threat last year – it’s sobering to see that in many countries, the reward for outstanding human rights journalism can be a lengthy prison sentence.
Amnesty International demonstrators protest in Moscow. © Amnesty International
The protest stretches across Europe…
While the London protest was going on, Sabine Zwiers and Ulla Pape from Amnesty International in the Netherlands, along with Aik Meeuwse from Free Voice, met with staff from the Azerbaijan embassy in Amsterdam and delivered 16,875 signatures calling for the immediate release of Eynulla Fatullayev.
The embassy staff were hospitable and promised to send the petition on to Baku. They declined to comment on Eynulla Fatullayev’s case, but said that they would pass on any official reaction to the petition.
And in Russia…
Demonstrators gathered outside the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow at lunchtime to protest against the continued imprisonment of independent journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.
They called for Azerbaijan to comply with the European Court of Human Rights’ 22 April ruling and immediately release Eynulla Fatullayev. Activists also delivered a letter to the Embassy, highlighting Amnesty International’s concerns about his case. The demonstration was covered by Moscow radio and on Moscow-based news websites.
Release Eynulla Fatullayev immediately. He has done no wrong; freedom of speech helps, not hurts a country.
No One should have to live without Human Rights and freedom of speech is one of them.