Caselist - PEN International

52emergency surgery and was believed to have been in a stable conditionin hospital in Baku before he died. However, he dies in hospital on 23November 2011 after reportedly choking on vomit mass. Although themotive for the attack remains unknown, it is alleged that it may havebeen related to an article Tagi published on 10 November 2011 entitled‘Iran and the Inevitability of Globalisation’ in which he criticized theIranian regime and described threats made against Azerbaijan by Iran as“ridiculous”. A criminal investigation has been launched by the KhataiDistrict Prosecutor’s Office. Background: Tagi, a former PEN main case,was previously arrested in November 2006 for an article entitled ‘Europeand Us’, published in Sanat newspaper, for which he was accused ofinsulting the Prophet Mohammad. Following the publication of the articleGrand Ayatollah Fazil Lankarani of Iran issued a fatwa calling for Tagi’sdeath. He was sentenced to three years in prison for the article underArticle 283 of the Azeri Criminal Code for “inciting national, racial andreligious enmity”. Following significant international pressure, Tagi wasgranted amnesty on 28 December 2007.Imprisoned - InvestigationNazim GULIYEV: Founder and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Ideal,currently closed, was reportedly sentenced to thirteen years in prison andconfiscation of his property by the Grave Crimes Court on 15 January 2010.The charges against him are: extortion (under Article 182 of the CriminalCode); hooliganism (under article 221); and illegal manufacturing, purchase,storage, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotics, psychotropicsubstances (under Article 234). Guliyev is serving his sentence in a specialpenitentiary. Previous conviction: Guliyev was arrested in late April 2009and sentenced to six months in prison. Convicted regarding a criminal casefiled in September 2008 by a Nagorno-Karabakh war veteran, who allegedthat two articles published in Ideal in August 2008 harmed her dignity.Guliyev was sentenced to pre-trial detention during a hearing in the NasimiDistrict Court on 30 October 2008; however by then he had gone into hiding.In late April 2009, Guliyev was arrested and on 26 May 2009 he wassentenced to six months on defamation charges (see previous caselist). PENis seeking clarification of the current criminal charges so as to ascertainwhether he is in fact detained for his writings.*Avaz ZEYNALLI: editor-in-chief of the Khural newspaper; was detainedon 28 October 2011 by members of the Anti-Corruption Fight Office and,on the same day, sentenced to three months of pre-trial detention by theNasimi District Court. It was also reported that searches were carried outon Zeynalli’s house, office and car. On 29 October 2011 he was transferredto the Kurdakhani Investigation Prison. A criminal charge is alsobelieved to have been brought against Zeynalli under Article 306.2 of theAzeri Crminal Code (contempt of court). His lawyer, Elchin Sadigov, hassaid there are no grounds for sentencing the editor to pre-trial detentionor for launching a criminal case. The case is reported to be the result ofZeynalli’s non-adherence to a court decision which ordered Khural topay over US$18,000 to two men who had accused Khural of ‘insultingtheir honour and dignity’. The newspaper had appealed for the terminationof the fines due to lack of funds. Previous harassment: Zeynallihad previously reported receiving a threatening phone call on 26 June2011 from someone claiming to be Binagadi District Police DepartmentChief Agalar Maharramov. The caller insulted Zeynalli and threatenedto kill him. The call followed an article Zeynalli had published whichclaimed that Maharramov had taken bribes from business institutions runby high-ranking officials in the district. Maharramov has denied that thecall came from him.Attacked*Idrak ABBASOV: journalist, was allegedly attacked by two unidentifiedmen as he was returning from work on 20 September 2011. Previously,on 9 September 2011, several members of Abbasov’s family had reportedlybeen severely beaten and their home in the suburbs of Baku waspartly destroyed. The attack was allegedly carried out by securitypersonnel working for the state-owned Binagadi Oil Company. Abbasovhad been investigating alleged illegal activity carried out by the company.It was reported that the company had been threatening Abbasov’s fatherand brother for several months with the destruction of their home if hedid not stop investigating.*Nackchivan Elman ABBASOV and Ilgar NASIBOV: correspondentsfor the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety and the TuranInformation Agency, respectively, were assaulted by Sharur Districtpolice officers while preparing a report in Jalil village in Sharur on 15July 2011. The two journalists were beaten, their cameras were seizedand information was deleted.Death Threat*Anar MAKHMUDOGLU and Nuraddin KHODZHA: editor and journalistfor the opposition newspaper Khural, respectively, received threateningcalls from an unknown individual on 7 December 2011. The callerreportedly first phoned Khodzha and threatened to “punish” him fortrying to publish the new newspaper ASI. Minutes later Makhmudoglureceived a call, believed to be form the same man, in which the callerreportedly threatened to hurt or kill the journalist and his children. Khuralhas faced severe harassment in the past and its editor Avaz Zeynalli iscurrently in prison (see above).Harassed*Yasef HASANOV: correspondent with Radio Free Europe/ RadioLiberty, was deported from the Azeri enclave of Naxicivan and forcedto return to Baku via Iran on 31 August 2011. Hasanov was stopped bythree unidentified men on 20 August 2011 who confiscated his passportand forced him into their car. He was then driven to the border and toldto return to Baku or “it would cost him”. He was forced to return viaIran, where RFE/RL is an illegal organisation. Hasanov has been investigatingthe death of a man accused of spying for Tehran who had beenfound dead at Naxcivan’s Ministry of National Security where he hadbeen summoned by authorities.BELARUSImprisoned - Main Case*Ales BYALYATSKI: writer and prominent human rights activist,sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment on 24 November 2011on charges of tax evasion. Byalyatski, head of the Vyasna (Spring) humanrights centre, was a founding member of the Belarusian literary organizationTutejshyja (The Locals) and served as a former head of the MaximBahdanovich Literary Museum in Minsk. He was arrested on 4 August2011 and charged with tax evasion, charges which stemmed from hisreported use of personal bank accounts in Lithuania and Poland to receivefunding from international donors for Vyasna’s human rights activitiesin Belarus. Vyasna had campaigned for scores of opposition activistspersecuted by the government of President Alexsander Lukashenko. Theorganization had been stripped of its official registration in 2003, makingit extremely difficult under Belarus’s economic laws to raise funds for itsactivities. Update: On 20 December the Belarusian Interior Ministry’sPenitentiary Supervision Department (DVP) overruled a decision madethe previous day by Minsk’s Pershamay District court to allow AlesByalyatski to visit his father.Dimitri BONDARENKO: journalist with Charter 97, sentenced on 27April 2011 to two years in prison under Article 342 of the Criminal Codeof Belarus for ‘preparation of activities that disrupt the public order’ andordered to pay a fine for damages to public transport. He was arrestedon 19 December 2010, during the mass arrests which followed protestsagainst the flawed presidential elections, and originally charged with‘Organization of riots’. He was also accused of using the internet to callfor participation in the protest and ‘expressing false statements aboutundemocratic elections’. Bondarenko admitted his participation in themass demonstrations, but pleaded not guilty to the other charges. It wasalso reported that Bondarenko was denied access to his lawyer during hisdetention. PEN is seeking further information.Non-Custodial SentenceAleksandr Fiaduta is an author, literary critic and member of BelarusPEN. A former member of Lukashenko’s administration, he resignedin 1994 and published a critical biography - banned in Belarus - of thePresident. He is a member of Vladimir Neklyaev’s Tell the Truth party.He was arrested on 19 December 2010 and was charged under Article293 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (‘Organization of riots’) His chargewas subsequently reduced to ‘preparation of activities that disrupt thepublic order’ for which he was given a 2 year suspended sentence on 20May 2011. Honorary Member: Lithuania PEN.Vladimir NEKLYAYEV: writer, poet, former president of the BelarusPEN Centre and the Tell the Truth party’s candidate in the presidentialelections; given a two year suspended sentence on 20 May 2011 for‘participation in activities that disrupt the public order’ (Under Article342 of the Belarusian Penal Code). Background: Neklyayev wasassaulted and detained by the KGB during the mass arrests that tookplace following protests against the flawed presidential elections on10 December 2010. He had originally charged with ‘organising riots’.Previous Harassment: Neklyayev was arrested by the armed police on18 May 2010, during raids on civil society groups throughout the country.Officers seized computers, mobile phones, memory sticks, books andleaflets. He was charged under Article 250 of the Criminal Code for“dissemination of false information”. By 25 May 2010, Neklyayevwas freed, but the charges remained. Some believe that the raids wereaimed at intimidating opposition groups in advance to the February 2011presidential elections. Update: A Subpoena requesting Naklyayev’spresence in a Minsk police station the following day was issued to hiswife on 28 September 2011. Neklyayev had travelled to Warsaw; as partof his two-year suspended sentence he had been barred from travellingoutside of Minsk without written permission from the authorities andbanned altogether from leaving Belarus. Nekylayev has said he refusesto acknowledge the travel ban. [RAN 35/10, Update #1 – 26 May 2010;(RAN 35/10 Update # 2 – 20 December 2010; RAN 35/10 Update # 3 -21 December 2010; RAN 35/10, Update # 5 – 5 January 2011). HonoraryMember of Lithuania PEN, PEN New Zealand.Pavel SEVERINETS: is an opposition activist, author of several books,and a member of Belarus PEN which recently awarded him their book ofthe year prize. He was arrested on 19 December 2010 and charged underArticle 293 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (‘Organization of riots’). Hewas reported to have been sentenced on 17 May 2010 to three years ofrestricted freedom, without being sent to a correctional institution (socalled“chemistry”).Brief Detention*Igor BANTSER, Aleksander DENISOV, Yuri GUMENYUK, AndeirFROLOV, Nikolai DETCHENYA and Anna ILYINA (f): journalistsand members of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), wereimprisoned for up to eight days from 3 July 2011. The journalists hadbeen covering a rally to oppose the official celebration of the BelarusianIndependence Day, at which hundreds of protestors marched through thestreets in a number of Belarusian cities to express opposition to PresidentLukashenko’s authoritarian policies. All the journalists were tried behindclosed doors and it is unclear on what charges they were detained.*Dimiter KENAROV: Bulgarian journalist, poet and interpreter, wasarrested on 29 June 2011 in Mozir, Belarus, along with his Americancolleague Jason Motlagh. Kenarov was arrested after a visit to a localtractor factory, where he allegedly planned to carry out an interview, afterhe failed to present proper travel documents to the authorities. A statementfrom the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry stated that it had acted “immediately”after being notified of the arrest, but the Belarusian authorities“refused to allow the document to be delivered on time”. Kenarov wasdue to be released and deported on 04 July 2011.*Sergei KOVALEV, Ales OSIPTSEV, Viktor MASALOVICH, ViktorKACHAN, Sergei LATINSKY, Aleksandr SUSHCHEVSKY,Olga RUDNITSKAYA (f), Mikhail KORNEVICH and YevgenySHAPCHITS: journalists were among 28 journalists detained on 6 July2011 as they covered peaceful protest rallies which opposition activistshave been holding every week since May. It is unclear what charges hadbeen brought against them. The Belarusian Association of Journalists(BAJ) has reported that three of the detained have been sentenced to upto 12 days in all. All other journalists arrested were released on the sameday.*Konstantin SHITAL: journalist for the website westki.info, wasdetained by police near the city of Mior on 7 October 2011 and was allegedlydetained in connection with a burglary. The journalist has claimedthat the arrest was designed to prevent him from attending a People’sAssembly scheduled to take place on 8 October 2011. In Belarus aPeople’s Assembly is a general meeting between the Government andindustry leaders which citizens are permitted to attend and take part inthe discussion. Shital was released on 10 October 2011.HarassmentAndrzej POCZOBUT: correspondent for the largest Polish daily,Gazeta Wyborcza. On 5 July 2011 Poczobut was convicted of libellingBelarus President Aleksandr Lukasheko and was given a two-yearsuspended sentence. Poczobut had been detained on 06 April 2011 inGrodno, as he was about to drive to Minsk, and was handed a documentbanning his travel. On 8 April he was charged with libel and his arrestwas extended by two months. He was charged under two articles of theBelarusian Penal Code (Article 368, insulting the president of Belarus,and Article 367, slandering the president of Belarus). The first sentencecarried a maximum punishment of up to two years in prison, while thesecond sentence carried two to four years. The trial began on 14 July2011 and was conducted behind closed doors. On 20 September 2011the charge was upheld on appeal. On 15 November 2011 Poczobut wasgiven a warning for violating his parole regulations. As part of his parolethe journalist is required to report to a police station three times a month 53