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First case of criminal conviction for an alleged defamation online was recorded in Azerbaijan which follows the recently introduced changes to the defamation laws passed on 14 May 2013, the international human rights organization Amnesty International reports.

On 14 August 2013, the Astara Regional Court found Mikayil Talibov guilty of slander under article 147.1 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, sentencing him to one year of “corrective labour” under which 20 per cent of his monthly income would be deducted into the state budget for a period of one year.

The human rights organization believes that the amendments were signed into law by President Ilham Aliyev on 3 June. This not only contravenes the government’s earlier commitment to decriminalize defamation by 2012, but signifies a further erosion of the right to freedom of expression in Azerbaijan in the run up to the presidential elections.

“The UN Human Rights Committee has encouraged states to consider decriminalizing defamation and underlined that, in any case, the criminal law should only be used in the most serious of cases. It has underlined that defamation laws must be crafted with care to ensure that they comply with states' international human rights obligations and do not in practice stifle freedom of expression,” AI statement reads.

Earlier “Amnesty International” has expressed concern about several incidents of harassment of people by the Azerbaijani authorities for their activity on the internet and in particular Facebook, the document says.

On August 15, 2013, by the verdict of Astara regional court Mikayil Talibov was found guilty of slander on Facebook and was sentenced to 1 year corrective labour. Access Bank filed its former employee. Talibov considered the termination of his contract illegal and created a Facebook page called “Accessbank- Haqsızbank” (“Accessbank-Unfair bank”). The court acknowledged the phrases “Accessbank-Unfair bank takes 5000 manat bribe for 50 000 manat loan” as libel and forced Talibov to deny it. The Astara Regional Court found Mikayil Talibov guilty of slander under article 147.1 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, sentencing him to one year of “corrective labour”

The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a bill in June, which referred to the amendments by the parliament of the state to the Criminal code on May 14. The amendments expanded the criminal penalties to the slanders and abuses in the Internet as well. Adoption of amendments provoked protests among both local and international journalists and human rights organizations, who regreted that, despite of all the calls to decriminalize defamation, the Azerbaijani authorities decided to extend them over the Internet as well.