EU warns Baku

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and EU Commissioner on good neighborhood Stefan Fule on Saturday expressed concern over the arrest in Azerbaijan of the deputy head of the party "Musavat" Tofig Yagublu and leader of the "Republican Alternative" Ilgar Mamedov, representing the opposition movement in the country, Interfax reported.

The senior representatives of the EU urged the Azerbaijani authorities to "provide prompt, fair, transparent and independent investigation into the allegations" and "refrain from further obstructing journalists and political activists seeking to exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms."

Ashton and Fule called on Baku to review the charges against peaceful demonstrators on 26 January, on an urgent basis. In addition, "to ensure fair investigation into the allegations of ill-treatment of detainees and the participants of the January demonstration of protest in Ismayilli, and ensure decent conditions of detention," the official statement issued in Brussels reads.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said that Baku sees this statement as pressure on the investigation and considers unacceptable the intervention in the investigation process.

He said that Azerbaijan considers this approach by EU biased and unfair. "We are very sorry that some EU officials, regarding the situation in the country, uniquely distort it and make biased, unfair assessment, "fanning" them. It makes us wonder and regret, "said Abdullayev.

It should be noted that the session of the court on Mammadov and Yagublu did not admit the head of the European Union representative office in Azerbaijan Roland Kobia. He had, along with other observers, to expect the trial results in the street outside. Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry did not respond to this case. -0 -