Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Ilhamgizi/ The Azerbaijani Council on Press submitted an appeal to pardon seven Azerbaijani detained journalists to the President, stated chairman of the Council Aflatun Amashov to the Trend agency on 24 December.
The pardon of detained journalists may to become the next step demonstrates that there is freedom of speech and press, as well as respect to human being in Azerbaijan.
Amashov met with a group of detained journalists in prison before he submitted an appeal to the President.
Presently, nine journalists are kept in Azerbaijani prison due to their professional activity. Eight of them were sentenced by the decision of court and one was arrested.
Eynulla Fatullayev was charged as a result of articles published in his newspapers by the lawsuit of Tatyana Chaladzeh, head of the State Committee on Refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDP) on 20 April, chief editor of the Azerbaijani Azadlig newspaper Ganimat Zahid was charged with hooliganism and causing the deliberate damage to the human health, journalist Sakit Zahidov is charged with carrying illegal drugs, Samir Sadagatoglu, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Senet and his employee Tofig Tahi are accused of infusing racial hatred, social, national, religious hatred and hostility.
The chief editor of the Azadlig newspaper Ganimat Zahid and journalists of Bizim Yol newspaper Mushvig Huseynov were not included into the list as court has not made a decision on their cases, Amashov added.