'Hooligan' satirists jailed in Azerbaijan

(CNN) -- Two satirical bloggers who staged an interview with a donkey were sent to prison in Azerbaijan Wednesday, following a two-month trial for assault, the father of one told CNN. Adnan Hadjizadeh 26, and Emin Milli, 30, were accused of hooliganism after an altercation in a cafe in July.

Hadjizadeh was imprisoned for two years and Milli was sentenced to two and a half, Hadjizadeh's father, Hikmet, told CNN by phone from Baku, the capital of the oil-rich former Soviet republic.

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"Emin Milli and Adnan Hadjizadeh were physically attacked, apparently unprovoked, in a Baku restaurant. Witnesses reported that the two had been discussing their youth movement activities when two strangers approached them, demanded that they stop discussing such matters, and attacked them," Human Rights Watch and other organizations wrote in an open letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev when the trial opened in September.

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The U.S. State Department criticized the verdict as "a step backwards for Azerbaijan's progress towards democratic reform.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/1...