France arrests two people accused of attempting to kill opposition blogger from Azerbaijan

Baku/14.06.22/Turan: On the morning of June 14, the French police arrested two people near the city of Angers. They are suspected of attempting to assassinate blogger Muhammad Mirzali, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

The two men were detained by customs on Tuesday. This is an Azerbaijani, armed with a pistol, and a Moldovan of Turkish origin. Both were in a vehicle registered in Poland. Their GPS showed the blogger's home address, and their phone had a photo of him. One of them was previously arrested for kidnapping in 2018 in Kyiv. The names of these persons are not disclosed.

Everything indicates that a new assassination attempt on Mohammed Mirzali, the third in a row, was being prepared, Jeanne Cavelier, head of the department for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said.

 A profile picture of this man with a Kalashnikov gun, accompanied by a clear threat: "I'm here."

Mirzali receives this type of messages daily, especially on YouTube, says the blogger, who has long been a sharp critic of the Azerbaijani leadership.

There have already been two assassination attempts on Mirzali, including a stabbing in the center of Nantes in March 2021. At the end of April, four men, three from Azerbaijan, were convicted for the attack.

Lawsuits were filed against the blogger in the French courts by relatives of the President of Azerbaijan. Last week, a defamation lawsuit filed against him by the country's former deputy economy minister was dismissed, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.-02D-