U.S. 'Concerned' By Reports About Rufat Safarov's Arrests, Urges Azerbaijan To 'Cease Crackdown' (video)

The United States said Tuesday it was closely monitoring the case of Rufat Safarov, a prominent human rights defender who got detained today in Azerbaijan, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

 "We're deeply concerned by reports that human rights defender Rafat Safarov has been detained in Azerbaijan," State Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily briefing when responding to TURAN's questions.

Safarov, the director of the local human rights group Defense Line, which is known for documenting and reporting on politically motivated arrests and prosecutions, government corruption, and allegations of torture in Azeerbaijan, was stopped by Baku police Tuesday morning, just days before he was, reportedly, to receive an award from the State Department for his human rights work.

Patel went on to urge Azerbaijan "to release all of those unjustly detained and to cease its crackdown on civil society, including human rights defenders and journalists"

"It is imperative that human rights defenders everywhere are able to conduct their work without hindrance and free and fear from retribution," he said.

Asked whether the failure to secure political prisoners' release before and during COP29 in Azerbaijan has emboldened the government, Patel said:   "I'm just not going to speculate on the decision making here what may or may not have caused this... what I will just echo is that we're urging Azerbaijan to release all those unjustly detained and cease its crackdown on civil society, including human rights defenders and journalists."