An Azerbaijani court on Friday sentenced an opposition journalist to six years in jail for economic crimes - charges he denounced as made up and politically motivated. Aziz Orujov, director of Kanal 13 internet television, "is being punished for covering opposition protests" in the tightly controlled country, his lawyer Javad Javadov told AFP.
"My client has been jailed for illegal entrepreneurship, for receiving illegal financing from foreign entities," the lawyer said, adding that the 33-year-old "rejects all charges brought against him as false and politically motivated". Oil-rich Azerbaijan has repeatedly been accused by rights groups of using spurious charges to crack down on dissent against President Ilham Aliyev's authoritarian regime.
Azerbaijan ranks 162nd out of 180 countries on the 2017 press freedom index published by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. Aliyev took control of the country after the death of his father Heydar in 2003, a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993.
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