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RFE/RL Remains Troubled About Azerbaijani Correspondent

Ilgar Nasibov may be out of jail but RFE/RL says it doesn’t consider him free or exonerated.

Ilgar Nasibov may be out of jail but RFE/RL says it doesn’t consider him free or exonerated.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said it remains “deeply concerned” about the fate of its Azerbaijani Service correspondent. New libel allegations were leveled during a court hearing, though original charges were dismissed and he was released from prison.

“Nasibov will appeal these latest allegations, which resulted in a one-year suspended sentence,” the organization stated.

During the hearing, Nasibov was told authorities had found materials on his computer allegedly including incriminating accusations about two local professors, a businessman and the brother of the local police chief. “Prosecutors are attempting to link the apparent find to an article published in the local newspaper in May 2006 alleging that unnamed university professors were colluding with Kurdish PKK rebels,” RFE/RL stated.

Nasibov had been sentenced to 90 days in jail; police had filed libel charges after he complained about brutality in an e-mail to the country’s president. A local court dismissed the charges, but when Nasibov went to sign dismissal papers the judge reinstated them, denied him counsel and sentenced him to prison, RFE/RL stated.

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