PACE Special Rapporteur concerned over Fikret Huseynli's arrest

Baku/21.10.17/Turan: PACE special rapporteur on abuse of the Interpol system Bernd Fabricius made a statement about the arrest of an Azerbaijani journalist, Dutch citizen Fikret Huseynli, in Ukraine.

(http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/News/News-View-EN.asp?newsid=6845&lang=2&cat=5).

He expressed deep concern about the imprisonment of the journalist:"As Rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on abusive use of the Interpol Red Notice system to persecute human rights defenders and opposition politicians, I am seriously concerned about new reports on arrests of journalists and persons who have received political asylum on the basis of Red Notices issued by Interpol. Two cases were flagged by "Reporters without Borders", namely the arrest, on 14 October in Ukraine, of the Dutch-Azerbaijani journalist Fikret Huseynli living in exile in the Netherlands," Bernd Fabritius (Germany, EPP/CD) said today.

On the basis of his report, the PACE adopted a resolution and it calls for an end to the use by some of the authoritarian regimes of Interpol as a tool for punishing oppositionists.

Recent events show the importance of meeting this requirement, the document says.

Huseynli emigrated from Azerbaijan in 2008 and received political asylum in the Netherlands, and then the citizenship of that country.

Huseynli was detained on October 14 with his flight from Kiev to Dusseldorf at the request of Azerbaijan, where he is accused of fraud and illegal crossing of the border.

On October 17, the court elected a preventive measure against him in the form of arrest for 18 days. The journalist rejected accusations.-03D06-