Journalist Ganimat Zahid has been sentenced in absentia by a Baku court to seven years in prison. He was found guilty of incitement against the state. According to the prosecution, in July 2018, Zahid published materials on YouTube containing open calls for violent actions against the Azerbaijani authorities.
Ganimat Zahid, editor-in-chief of the Azadliq (Freedom) newspaper and a resident of France, denied the charges, viewing the criminal case as persecution for his professional activities.
In 2011, Ganimat Zahid reported threats against his family and took them out of the country, receiving political asylum in France. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) previously awarded the editor €8,500 in compensation for the destruction of a manuscript during the investigation. The ECHR also found a violation of his right to freedom of expression in connection with a defamation lawsuit, in which an Azerbaijani court ordered the journalist to pay compensation.
