Azerbaijan Sentences Two Critics to Lengthy Jail Terms

Azerbaijan has jailed an anti-government blogger and opposition journalist to lengthy jail terms on charges both claim are politically motivated, one of the men's lawyers and a court source said Thursday.

Rashad Ramazanov, a writer who has criticized strongman President Ilham Aliyev online, was jailed for nine years on Wednesday after he was arrested in May on drug possession charges he claims are trumped-up, his lawyer Azer Nagiev said.

In a separate case, Sardar Alibeyli, an editor of opposition newspaper PS.Nota, was also sentenced to four years in prison on hooliganism charges, a source at the Baku district court where he was tried told AFP.

Rights groups have lashed out at the sentences and accused authorities of continuing a ruthless crackdown on its critics in the wake of Aliyev's election victory last month.

"Azerbaijan's ruthless and relentless attack on any dissenting voices in the media continues apace with these shameful convictions and jail sentences, which appear to be based on offences fabricated by the prosecution," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Director.

Aliyev secured a third term with some 85 percent of the vote at October 9 polls slammed as flawed by OSCE observers to extend his family's decades-long grip on power in the tightly-controlled ex-Soviet state.

Any sign of dissent usually meets a harsh reaction in the oil-rich nation and rights groups accused the authorities of jailing scores of opponents in the run-up to the vote.

Earlier this month prosecutors launched a criminal probe into a leading independent election monitoring group in the country that criticized the election.

Growing pressure on the two remaining opposition newspapers Azadliq and Yeni Musavat -- including compensation claims and sale bans -- have seen both publications stop the printing of their daily editions in recent days, Amnesty said.

The 51-year-old Aliyev first took power in 2003 in a disputed election after the death of his father Heydar, a former KGB officer and Communist-era boss.