Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 with stitches. According to reports he recognized one of his attackers as having been present during the court proceedings against Eynulla Fatullayev. Earlier that day Uzeyir Jafarov had testified in defence of Eynulla Fatullayev. One month after Eynulla Fatullayev’s sentencing to two years’ imprisonment on 20 April, the premises held by the Realny Azerbaydzhan and Gündelik Azərbaycan newspapers were targeted by a series of inspections by state agents apparently aimed at shutting both newspapers down. On 20 May staff from the Ministry of Emergency Situations conducted an operation removing the employees of both newspapers and sealing their offices shut on grounds of structural deficiency; the newspapers’ technical equipment was not removed. According to reports, the building is a recent construction and residents inhabiting apartments in its upper floors were not asked to move out. On 25 May the offices’ landlord cancelled the rental agreement with Realny Azerbaydzhan and Gündelik Azərbaycan and all remaining property belonging to the newspapers and their staff was removed from the building by police. The equipment was returned to the newspapers. State investigators on 22 May instituted a new criminal case against Eynulla Fatullayev under Article 214.1 of the Criminal Code (perpetration or incitement of terrorist acts), punishable by up to 12 years’ imprisonment. The charges related to an article published in Realny Azerbaydzhan on 30 March, which criticized the Azerbaijani government’s support for the UN Security Council resolution on Iran. The article then listed a series of strategic objects which could become targets of Iranian military action if hostilities were to open between Iran and Azerbaijan. State Prosecutor Zakir Qaralov claimed this constituted a threat of terrorist action against Azerbaijan. At a hearing in the Court of Appeals on 6 June, Eynulla Fatullayev reported that a gun had been pressed to his head while he was being transferred from Bayil Prison to the detention centre of the Ministry of National Amnesty International 15 Security on 29 May, and that in his new place of detention he was being denied food and water. The case of Rovşan Kebirli and Yaşar Agazade On 16 May Yasamal District Court sentenced editor-in-chief Rovşan Kebirli and journalist Yaşar Agazade of the opposition daily newspaper Müxalifət (Dissent) to two and a half years’ imprisonment each for ‘libel and insult’. The charges related to a February article alleging the abuse of political connections in the import-export business run by Jalal Aliyev, the uncle of President Ilham Aliyev. The case of Bextiyar Haciəv On 13 January Bextiyar Haciəv, a youth activist and chair of the local chapter of the international students organization AIESEC (an acronym originally standing for Association des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales), was arrested and then reportedly held in solitary confinement in the Narimanov district police station in Baku. He was charged with refusal to cooperate with the police, a charge which he denied. On 14 January Bextiyar Haciəv was sentenced to 12 days’ imprisonment by the Narimanov district court after a closed court session taking place on Sunday night. Reportedly, Bextiyar Haciəv had no legal representation at the hearing. He was, however, released two days later. He attributed his arrest to his initiation of a recent campaign against corruption in higher education institutions in Azerbaijan. He had also founded a website entitled www.susmayaq.biz (meaning ‘let’s not remain silent’ in Azeri) as a platform for protests against price rises in fuel and communal services announced by the Azerbaijani Tariff Council on 8 January. The website posted petitions and messages of protest against the price rises and was closed after only two days. AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007