Afgan Mukhtarli�s Images Edited

Baku / 20.06.17 / Turan: Archil Chopikashvili, the Georgian lawyer of the journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, who was abducted in Tbilisi and delivered to Azerbaijan, applied to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

The lawyer told Turan he asked to provide protection to the video image along the whole trajectory of the movement on the day of the journalist's disappearance.

According to the lawyer, he previously sent such an appeal, but the video image provided was rather doubtful.

"The video image presented by the Ministry of the Interior was questionable, as it was clear that they had worked on it. On one part of the video the weather is sunny, and where a part of the film was removed, the weather is rainy. The view of the neighborhood and the situation with car parking change at once," says the lawyer. He assumes the video image was edited. Chopikashvili wants to get a full video image.

The journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was abducted in Tbilisi on May 29 and taken to Azerbaijan. He is charged under Article 315.2 (resistance to a representative of power with the use of force). Then two more articles of the Criminal Code were put against him: 318.1 and 206.1 (illegal border crossing and smuggling). Official Baku claims that Mukhtarli was detained in Azerbaijan while crossing the border illegally and believes that it is wrong to politicize this issue. The court authorized his pretrial arrest for three months.

Mukhtarli lived in Georgia for more than two years, fleeing persecution in Azerbaijan. In recent years, he actively participated in actions against the authorities of Azerbaijan, held in Tbilisi.

The Mukhtarli case has been accepted by the European Court of Justice for investigation. -0-