On 24 May 2011, U.K. journalists including Jon Snow of Channel 4 News and John Mulholland, editor of "The Observer", joined Amnesty International in issuing a "mass tweet" on Fatullayev's behalf; the journalists photographed themselves with placards reading "Eynulla Fatullayevi azad et!"—meaning "Free Eynulla Fatullayev!" in Azerbaijani—and tweeted the photographs to President Ilham Aliyev. Fatullayev received a full pardon two days later, and he was released after serving four years of his eight-year sentence. He attributed his release to the work of Amnesty International activists, saying, "In my opinion, you saved me. Thank you to all those who tweeted."