BAKU (Eurasianet)–A Baku court on Wednesday dropped charges against an Azerbaijani newspaper editor who published an Azeri-language translation of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”
Hural newspaper editor Avaz Zeynally was briefly arrested in 2004 for ordering 100 copies of the Nazi leader’s book, the APA news agency reported. The Ministry of National Security then quickly confiscated some 50 copies.
Zeynally has been arrested and released several times since 2004 in response to protests from the Israeli embassy and Azerbaijani Jewish community that publishing Hitler’s work amounted to sympathizing with Nazism, The Bikililar news service reported. Zeynally faced charges of stoking ethnic, racial and religious tensions that carry a maximum of four years in prison.
The Nariman District court finally upheld Zeynally’s argument that Azerbaijani law does not prohibit the publication of Hitler’s book.
