A department editor at Azerbaijani newspaper Bizim Yol (Our Way) has been sentenced to three months in prison in a closed court hearing Thursday for taking $35,000 in bribes from a Labour and Social Protection Ministry employee.

Mushvig Huseynov was detained Tuesday by Azerbaijani National Security Ministry officials and was sentenced at Narimanov District Court by Judge Gulnara Tagizade. Huseynov is expected to make an appeal within three days, and has not admitted guilt.

Huseynov has been charged with bribery and told Trend News Agency he “disagrees with the accusation and considers it provocation.”

Emin Huseynov, the chief of Journalists' Freedom and Security Institute, told APA that Mushfig Huseynov has tuberculosis, as well as two children, one of whom is handicapped. Mushfig is being detained in Bayil, he said.

“The court did not take all this into consideration. We monitored the process. Mushfig Huseynov does not admit his guilt,” Emin Huseynov said.