12:54, 12 November 2003

Rauf Arifoglu arrested for long

The Court of Appeal decided not to change the preventive punishment for Rauf Arifoglu, editor-in-chief of the "Yeni Musavat" newspaper. So, the authorities' opinion is that he should be imprisoned in the Bailovsky Investigatory Isolation Ward for 3 months - right up till the investigation into the October 16 events is over. However, the editor's lawyer Samed Panakhov and experts of the Committee for Protection of Azerbaijan Journalists think differently. If to take into consideration that the Council of Editors and the Council of Founders of the Baku Press Club bailed Arif out with their full complement, the court could have changed Rauf Arifoglu's preventive punishment by legislation. The international community of journalists also tries to influence the situation. Experts hold Rauf Arifoglu will surely be imprisoned for a month or two, and after it President Ilkham Aliyev's petition will let him be released. There are optimists who think Rauf will be released on November 12, Constitution Day, by a pardon edict.

Source: Committee for Protection of Azerbaijan Jounalists "RUH"