A court in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, has sentenced a journalist to eighteen months imprisonment for writing an article which the government considered damaging to political stability.

The Azerbaijani news agency, Turan,said the journalist, Faud Gakhramanly, was arrested in June after police raided the premises of the newspaper, Chag, and found an article he had written about opposition rallies.

The authorities said the article contained calls for civil confrontation and a coup.