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An appellate court in Azerbaijan should reverse the conviction and five-year prison sentence handed on Friday to Hilal Mamedov, chief editor of the independent newspaper Talyshi Sado, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reads. You can see the report on the site of the organization.

CPJ reminds that a court in Baku, the capital, convicted Mamedov of treason, incitement to hatred, and selling illegal drugs. CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said “it's as if Azerbaijani authorities are desperate to keep him from practicing journalism.”

“His conviction should be overturned on appeal and Mamedov set free immediately,” she said.

The statement of the organization notes that in a statement in 2012, Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry said Mamedov had undermined the country's security through his articles for Talyshi Sado, interviews he had given to Iranian broadcaster Sahar-2, and unnamed books he had allegedly translated and distributed. The statement also accused the journalist of spying for Iran.

According to CPJ the local and international press freedom and human rights groups, including the independent Baku-based Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, have unsuccessfully called for an investigation into allegations by the journalist and his lawyer, who reported having seen bruises on his client's body, that he was tortured.

The organization also added that Azerbaijan, which holds at least nine journalists behind bars in retaliation for their work, is due to assume the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Europe in 2014.

Hilal Mamedov, editor in chief of the only Talysh newspaper "Tolyshi sado" in Azerbaijan, was arrested by the Azerbaijani police on June 21, 2012. He was charged in drug possession; later on the Azerbaijani MNS has accused him of treason and espionage. On 27 September 2013, the Azerbaijani court found him guilty and sentenced him to 5 years imprisonment. Among other things, Mr. Mamedov is known by the popular online video, "Who are you? Common, goodbye!" In summer 2012 three protests were held in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow demanding to stop the ethnocide and to release Hilal Mamedov.

Human rights organizations, such as the "Reporters without Borders", protested the arrest of Mammadov and demanded his release. The report of the "Reporters without Borders" says that Hilal Mamedov kept in squalid conditions since his arrest in June of this year on the basis of trumped-up charges. This case, as the organization notes is very similar to the case of Novruzali Mammadov, the predecessor of Hilal Mamedov, who was the editor of "Tolyshi sado."

The previous editor of "Tolyshi sado", Professor Novruzali Mamedov, was arrested by the Azerbaijani special services in 2008. He was also accused of espionage, and died in Azerbaijani prison in the summer of 2009, because of being refused in medical care, emphasize the "Reporters without Borders". Two sons of Mammadov, who were under pressure of the Azerbaijani authorities also died; one of them had a car accident, and the second was beaten every time as he took a parcel to his father.

The Talysh are an indigenous people of that region, a settlement area which covers the southern and northern regions of Azerbaijan province of Iran. The Talysh in Azerbaijan are subjected to harassment on ethnic grounds. According to official data their number in Azerbaijan reaches to 112 thousands, but the Talysh believe that the official data are manyfold underestimated.