Watchdog

A well-known Azerbaijani writer and journalist has died in a prison hospital, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.

Novruzali Mammadov, 68, was a leading activist of the Talysh minority of Azerbaijan, who speak a language related to Persian.

He was the head of the Talysh Cultural Center in Baku and editor of the newspaper "Tolishi sado" (The Voice of Talysh).

Azerbaijani human rights activist Elchin Bekhbudov told RFE/RL that prison officials told him that Mammadov's health deteriorated abruptly on August 17 and he died.

He was found guilty last year of spying for Iran and sentenced to 10 years in prison. International and domestic human rights activists had called for Azerbaijani authorities to release Mammadov.

His colleagues and relatives say the charges against him were politically motivated and he was considered by activists to be a political prisoner.

Lydia Arroyo, Amnesty International's press officer for Europe and Eurasia, told RFE/RL that her organization has "always been concerned about the allegations of ill-treatment" against Mammadov.

Arroyo said Mammadov's trial was "apparently unfair" and simply because of his "promotion of the Talysh culture and language in Azerbaijan."

She added that Amnesty was "concerned about the conditions in which Mammadov was held, not least because of his poor health."

Arroyo called on Azerbaijani officials to investigate his death, but said Amnesty has "serious concerns" that they could conduct an impartial investigation.

Talysh officially make up some 1 percent of Azerbaijan's 8.8 million people, although other estimates put their numbers much higher. There are also some 110,000 Talysh living in Iran.

A few hundred journalists, academics, bookshop owners, human rights activists, and parliamentarians have demonstrated in central Baghdad to protest moves by the government to muzzle freedom of expression, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports.

A draft media law that would tighten restrictions on websites is being considered by the government to send to parliament.

Addressing a gathering held at Al-Mutanabi Street, which is famous for its many old bookshops, journalist Imad al-Khafaji appealed to the government to scrap plans to block some websites and revive Saddam Hussein-era book-censorship rules, underlining that "freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right."

Al-Khafaji said that "this demonstration is in support of the bookshop owner who used to tremble on this very street that what he sold might not please the regime but now boasts that in the new Iraq even Saddam Hussein's books are freely peddled without fear of another dictator returning."

Tawfiq al-Timimi, a journalist at the protest, told RFI that the demonstration puts politicians on notice that "Iraq's journalists will not take any restrictions on free expression lying down."

Poet and journalist Husam al-Sarray told RFI that "the protest sends a strong message to the government that there is no going back, we have won our freedom and will not let go ever again."

Taking part in the August 14 protest were members of parliament, including Sabah al-Saadi, chairman of the parliament's anticorruption committee, who told journalists that "the press, the media as a whole, and freedom of expression are under attack and as lawmakers we have a responsibility to side with free, objective, and unfettered media."