Missing Azerbaijani opposition reporter in Tbilisi kidnapped to Baku
Georgia-based Azerbaijani opposition reporter and activist Afghan Mukhtarli, who went missing in Tbilisi yesterday, has been kidnapped and secretly taken to Baku, Azerbaijani media reported.
“Afghan called and said that he is in the central department of the state border guard service. I am currently on my way there,” the reporter’s attorney told Turan news agency, branding the kidnapping and secret transportation of his client as violation of international norms.
According to him, Georgian authorities shouldn’t have handed him over, because according to international norms, if a person is threatened with incarceration in his homeland, then he isn’t subject to being handed over. Earlier the Azerbaijani opposition media outlet Meydan TV said that reporter Afghan Mukhtarli went missing in Tbilisi.
According to the reporter’s wife, her husband went missing and didn’t return calls. The reporter’s wife contacted Georgian police, and the interior ministry replied that a nationwide search is underway over the man’s disappearance. Mukhtarli is known for criticizing the policies of Azerbaijani leadership. Since 2015, he was forced to settle in Tbilisi.
Opposition media reported that an article was published yesterday in a staterun website of Azerbaijan, which included also names of Azerbaijani oppositionists in Tbilisi. The list included surgeon Farman Jeyranov, Gezal Bayramli – deputy chairman of Azerbaijan’s People’s Front party, and reporter Afghan Mukhtarli. The surgeon and the reporter were arrested recently.
