Baku: Azerbaijan on Friday sentenced five men to up to 13 years in prison for beating to death a journalist who had criticised an Azeri football team player on Facebook. A serious crimes court in the capital Baku found the men "guilty of inflicting serious bodily harm that caused the death" of journalist Rasim Aliyev, judge Eldar Ismayilov said in the courtroom.

The men were sentenced to prison terms ranging from nine to 13 years. Aliyev, a 30-year-old photo and video journalist for a number of online publications, died in hospital in August last year after being beaten by a group of men who had contacted him over his Facebook post about a heated football match between teams from Cyprus and Azerbaijan.