His Excellency Ilham Aliev
President of Azerbaijan
Email: office@apparat.gov.az

16 October 2006

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the jailing of journalist Sakit Zahidov.

According to reports, Mr Zahidov, a journalist with the opposition daily Azadlig, was sentenced to three years in prison for drug possession by a court in Baku on 3 October. The trial was marked by a number of irregularities. At no time was evidence produced in court to support Mr Zahidov‚s alleged offence of "possessing drugs for the purpose of personal consumption", the charge on which he was finally convicted after the original charge of "purchasing a large amount of drugs for the purpose of re-sale" was amended. Other irregularities included inconsistent police statements and false claims relating to a negative drug test carried out on Mr Zahidov.

Mr Zahidov has always denied consuming or selling drugs and insists that the 10 grammes of heroin that was allegedly found on him at the time of his arrest on 23 June was planted by the police. Held since his arrest, Mr Zahidov went on hunger strike from 25 July to 5 August to protest against his imprisonment. He has said that he will continue to denounce government corruption from his cell.

We are seriously concerned that the jailing of Mr Zahidov was politically motivated. Over the last 18 months, several opposition journalists have faced violent attacks and arrest on apparently false charges. On 2 March 2005, Elmar Huseynov, editor-in-chief of the opposition weekly Monitor, was shot and killed outside his apartment in Baku. In March 2006, in separate incidents, two opposition journalists were severely beaten and left for dead on the outskirts of the capital. None of the perpetrators of these crimes has been brought to justice.

We respectfully remind you that if Mr Zahidov has been jailed for his activities as a journalist, it would be a clear breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers."

We respectfully call on you to ensure that Mr Zahidov is immediately released from prison and that all charges against him are dropped. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O‚Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.