Congressman Smith, Helsinki Comission, call on President Aliyev to immediately and unconditionally release Mehman Huseynov

Top U.S. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), the immediate past chairman of the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, calls on President Ilham Aliyev to immediately and unconditionally release blogger Mehman Huseynov, TURAN's US correspondent reports.

In his statement published on Friday Smith noted: "I urgently call on President Aliyev to immediately and unconditionally release Mehman Huseynov. Mehman has spent two years in jail for his work exposing the corruption of the Aliyev regime. The government compounded this injustice two weeks ago by imposing new arbitrary charges on him to extend his time behind bars. President Aliyev must act now to bring an end to this latest shameful episode of the regime"s cruel campaign against free speech."

In September 2017, Smith, then co-chairman of Congressional Helsinki Commission, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that urged the Trump administration to raise and prioritize these human rights and democracy concerns in our bilateral relationship with Azerbaijan.

In a tweet yesterday morning, the Helsinki Commission also expressed its deep concerned about well-being of hunger-striking Azerbaijani journalist Mehman Huseynov.
"The government recently imposed arbitrary new charges to prevent his release after 2 years in jail for journalism. Azerbaijan must uphold its OSCE commitments to press freedom," reads the tweet.

A.Raufoglu

Washington D.C.