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BAKU - Azerbaijan has begun the trial of two journalists accused of insulting Muslims by printing articles critical of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.
The defendants say the case -- which echoes the row across the Muslim world over cartoons of the Prophet printed in a Danish newspaper -- is an attack on their right to free speech.
Rafik Tagi, a journalist with the weekly Senet newspaper, and his editor Samir Sadagatoglu are charged with inciting racial hatred over the publication last year. If found guilty they could be jailed for up to five years.
Last year an Iranian cleric offered his house as a reward to anyone who killed the author of the article, saying he had insulted the Prophet.
Speaking at the opening of the trial in a district court in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, Tagi said: "There was nothing criminal in my article. I am absolutely not guilty."
Sadagatoglu also protested his innocence, saying the prosecution was "political" and that he was under "arrest for thinking differently".
The lawyer for the two men, Isakhan Ashurov, said the prosecution violated articles of the European Convention on Human Rights which protect freedom of expression.
Azerbaijan is a mainly Muslim republic that until 1991 was part of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan has a secular form of rule.
Cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad that were published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 sparked a wave of protests by Muslims.
- REUTERS
