Reporters Without Borders calls for journalist Avaz Zeynalli’s immediate release and condemns yesterday’s decision by a Baku appeal court to hold him for at least three months pending trial. The editor of the daily Khural, he was arrested a week ago as a result of a complaint by a ruling party parliamentarian accusing him of attempted extortion. Separate libel suits have forced the newspaper to stop operating.

“The authorities are using the most diverse pretexts to put halt Khural’s activities and to punish Avaz Zeynalli for his scathing criticism of the president,” Reporters Without Borders said. “There is absolutely no reason why the investigation into the extortion claim requires his detention. This decision has all the hallmarks of a double punishment. The persecution must stop at once.”

Neither Zeynalli’s family nor the press were allowed to attend yesterday’s closed-door hearing before a Baku appeal court, which upheld last week’s decision by a court in the Baku district of Nisami to hold him for at least three months pending trial on a charge of extortion under articles 311.3.3 and 311.3.4 of the criminal code. He is facing a possible sentence of 7 to 12 years in prison.

The complaint was filed by Gular Akhmedova, a parliamentary representative of the ruling YAP, who claims that Zeynalli threatened to publish compromising information about her in August if she did not give him money. So far, the only evidence is the recording of a phone call in which the voice alleged to be Zeynalli’s is unrecognizable. In the course of a search of his home and car, the police asked his wife where he had “hidden the gold and guns.”

Khural was forced to stop operating two weeks ago when officials went to the newspaper’s headquarters and seized its computer equipment and furniture on the grounds that Zeynalli had not paid a total of 19,000 manats (17,460 euros) in damages that had been ordered in separate libel actions brought by three prominent figures. He was also charged with non-compliance with a court order.

In reality, the spate of judicial proceedings against Zeynalli is a direct result of an article he wrote on 17 October criticizing President Ilham Aliev in the wake of an interview he gave to Al-Jazeera. After the seizure of Khural’s equipment, Zeynalli continued to post more critical articles online. His brother, Rauf Zeynalovun, was fired from his post with the traffic police on 20 October without any credible reason being given.

Azerbaijan is ranked 152nd out of 178 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Journalists, bloggers and activists have been the target of a harsh crackdown since a wave of peaceful demonstrations in March and April that were inspired by the Arab Spring protests.