BAKU -- A court in Baku has sentenced the editor of an ethnic minority newspaper to five years in prison.
Hilal Mamedov, the editor of the Baku-based "Tolisi Sado" (The Voice of Talysh) independent newspaper, was found guilty of high treason, incitement of ethnic, religious, and racial hatred, and drugs possession.
Mamedov, who was arrested in June 2012, protested his innocence again in the courtroom on September 27.
Mamedov's newspaper is printed in the Talysh language, a branch of Persian.
The Talysh minority's leader in Azerbaijan, Novruzali Mamedov, who edited the newspaper before Hilal Mamedov, died in prison in 2009 after being found guilty of spying for Iran and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Hilal Mamedov, the editor of the Baku-based "Tolisi Sado" (The Voice of Talysh) independent newspaper, was found guilty of high treason, incitement of ethnic, religious, and racial hatred, and drugs possession.
Mamedov, who was arrested in June 2012, protested his innocence again in the courtroom on September 27.
Mamedov's newspaper is printed in the Talysh language, a branch of Persian.
The Talysh minority's leader in Azerbaijan, Novruzali Mamedov, who edited the newspaper before Hilal Mamedov, died in prison in 2009 after being found guilty of spying for Iran and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
