Associated Press

February 28, 2005

Azerbaijani authorities have dropped a criminal investigation of a newspaper editor involved in publishing Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in Azerbaijani, officials said Monday.

Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry said Monday that it had closed a criminal investigation against Avaz Zeynalli, editor of the Khural newspaper, "for lack of punishable offense."

Zeynall was briefly detained for interrogation in December after an Azerbaijani publishing house printed 100 copies of "Mein Kampf" on his orders. The ministry has confiscated about 50 of them, and the rest were returned to the publisher or distributed by Zeynalli.

Members of Azerbaijan's small Jewish community have been protesting to authorities about the copies, demanding that they be seized.

Zeynalli, who isn't affiliated with any political group, has insisted that there was no law in Azerbaijan prohibiting publication of "Mein Kampf." He said he ordered the book to be published for commercial reasons.

"Adolf Hitler books can now be published and read in Azerbaijan without problem," Zeynalli told The Associated Press. "I will probably have more copies of the book published, since there is a public interest in that."

Hitler dictated "Mein Kampf," or "My Struggle," to deputy Rudolf Hess while serving time in prison in the early 1920s after staging a failed coup.

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