The Radio Liberty correspondent, Ilgar Nasibov, sentenced to three months of imprisonment in Nakhichevan on 6 December, was released on the 10-th of December. According to the correspondent he was threatened and subjected to extreme psychological pressure in the prison. (13-DEC-07)
               
Written by Shahla Ismayilova/ HRH Azerbaijan on the basis of materials from Turan Information Agency, Yeni Musavat, IRFS

Background information
Ilgar Nasibov, the correspondent of Radio Liberty in Nakhichevan, while preparing a report was insulted and detained on 4 November 2007 by Nakhchivan City Police Department Deputy Chief Ershad Ibrahimov. He was accused under article 147 and 148 (libel and defamation) of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code.

Besides, Ilgar Nasibov and Malahet Nasibova’s (I.Nasibov’s wife, who is also a Radio Liberty correspondent and a director of Human Rights Resource Center in Azerbaijan) house was searched. The search was carried out by local employees of the Ministry of Interior and resulted in the confiscation of the CPU of Malahet and Ilgar Nasibovs’ shared computer and all disks and CDs for the computer, including educational software the couple purchased for their three children.

Release
The arrest of Ilgar Nasibov caused big concern among the human rights actors, and numerous statements came from national and international organizations in defense of the journalist. The wfe of the arrested journalist Malahat Nasibova wrote an email letter to the president Ilham Aliyev.

Unexpectedly Ilgar Nasibov, despite of the sentence to three months of imprisonment, was released on 10 December 2007. I. Nasibov himself told the three-month prison sentence handed down to him on the basis of Nakhchivan City Police Department Chief Sabuhi Novruzov had been annulled, as Novruzov withdrew his lawsuit.

During the court hearing it was announced that the computer and other items confiscated from the Nasibov household would be returned within 20 days, in accordance with Azerbaijan’s legislation.

Nasibov told IRFS that he was not subjected to physical torture while in prison, but was threatened and subjected to extreme psychological pressure.