A court in Baku on February 27 sentenced independent Azerbaijani journalist Avaz Zeynalli to nine years in prison on corruption charges that he and his supporters have rejected as motivated by his journalistic work.
Zeynalli, the editor in chief of Khural (Parliament) TV, a leading independent Azerbaijani Internet TV station, has been in pretrial detention since September 2022, when he was arrested together with human rights lawyer Elchin Sadygov.
The two were arrested after a pro-government news organization claimed that they had extorted 20 thousand manats ($10,845) from the wife of imprisoned businessman Rasim Mamedov in exchange for favorable coverage of his case.
Mammadov is the former head of the steelmaking plant Baku Steel Company LLC. In February 2021 he was detained on charges that included the embezzlement of some 55 million manat (more than $32 million). He was defended by Sadygov.
Later in September 2022, the Baku Court of Appeal transferred Sadygov to house arrest, separating his case into a different proceeding.
Zeynalli has rejected the charges, saying that the state prosecution did not provide any reliable evidence confirming his guilt. In his final address to the court on February 26, he said that he was a prisoner of conscience, and the case against him was prompted by his journalistic work.
Zeynalli also told the court that he did not know 31 of the 38 witnesses produced by the prosecution in his case.
The court also ruled to confiscate 16,000 manat seized during the search of Zeynalli's house on the day of his detention in September 2022.
It was the second time that Zeynalli was sentenced on bribery-related charges.
In 2011, he was detained on allegations of extorting and accepting a bribe from former parliament deputy Gulyar Ahmadova.
Zeynalli pleaded not guilty at his subsequent trial in 2013, saying the case against him was connected with his work as a journalist.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison but was released a year later in 2014.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged Azerbaijani authorities to release Zeynalli and Sadygov and drop all charges against them.
“Bribery charges against Avaz Zeynalli, a critical journalist whom authorities have previously jailed for his work, and Elchin Sadygov, a lawyer who regularly defends journalists against state repression, are concerning, especially as pro-government media made the accusations,” said CPJ's Gulnoza Said in September 2022.
“Azerbaijani authorities should free Zeynalli and Sadygov, drop the charges against them, and refrain from jailing members of the press and their advocates in retaliation for their work.”