Novruzali Mamedov

Talyshi Sado

August 17, 2009, in Baku, Azerbaijan

Mamedov, 68, editor of a now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, died in Baku prison hospital while serving a 10-year jail term on fabricated charges of treason and incitement to ethnic hatred. The next day, Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service spokesman Mekhman Sadygov told the Azeri Press Agency (APA) that the journalist appeared to have suffered a stroke.

The Penitentiary Service said in an August 25 statement that a forensic exam found that Mamedov died of vein thrombosis, APA reported. Penitentiary Service representatives also said that Mamedov’s health was satisfactory and he refused to be transferred to a civilian hospital for treatment.

The official statements on Mamedov’s condition and treatment contradict statements from the journalist’s lawyer and supporters.

Ramiz Mamedov, the editor’s lawyer (no relationship to the journalist), said the journalist told him two days before his death that medical treatment had been inadequate and his health was deteriorating. The lawyer also told CPJ that prison authorities refused to release the journalist on humanitarian grounds despite calls from the Council of Europe’s representative to Azerbaijan and the country’s ombudsman. Mamedov suffered from hypertension, bronchitis, neuritis, and a prostate tumor, the lawyer said.

Emin Huseynov, director of the Baku-based Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, told CPJ that prison authorities did not comply with a local court's order to provide Mamedov with medical treatment beginning in March. Huseynov said authorities refused to allow independent medical treatment offered by a European Union delegation that visited Mamedov in prison in June.

Azerbaijani authorities took Mamedov into state custody in February 2007, initially on a trumped-up charge of resisting arrest, which was then changed to charges of state treason and incitement of ethnic hatred. A three-month- long, closed-door trial culminated in a 10-year jail sentence. Authorities never made their evidence against Mamedov public. News reports said the case was based on an allegation that Mamedov had received money from Iran to publish Talyshi Sado.

The small, twice-weekly publication for Azerbaijan's ethnic Talysh minority folded after his arrest. 

Medium: Print

Job: Editor

Beats Covered: Culture

Gender: Male

Local or Foreign: Local

Freelance: No

Type of Death: Dangerous Assignment

Suspected Source of Fire: Government Officials