Afqan Mukhtarly asks for help from international structures

Baku / 16.06.17 / Turan: Detained journalist Afgan Mukhtarly appealed to the international community and organizations to assist in obtaining video images from the place where he was kidnapped in Tbilisi, his lawyer Elchin Sadigov told RadioAzadlig about it.

The appeal says: "The state bodies of Azerbaijan and Georgia do not want to issue video images from the territories in which I was taken. I ask the international organizations to urgently demand these video images from the governments of both countries. "

The statement noted that video images from security cameras are usually stored for a month. Mukhtarly believes that the governments of Azerbaijan and Georgia deliberately do not issue images and after a month will say that there is no technical impossibility.

Previously, Azerbaijani and Georgian lawyers Afan Mukhtarly appealed to the relevant structures of both countries to obtain video images. However, their appeals were not satisfied.

Afghan Mukhtarli was kidnapped on May 29 in Tbilisi , and taken to Azerbaijan. When he was detained in Tbilisi, he was beaten, and then transferred across the border, and handed over to the Azerbaijani side. At the same time, 10.000 euros were planted in his pocket.

The journalist is being charged under Article 315.2 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan (resistance to the authorities with the use of force). Then he was accused of two more Articles of the Criminal Code: 318.1, and 206.1 (illegal crossing of the state border and smuggling.)

Official Baku claims that Mukhtarly was detained at the illegal crossing of the border, and resisted the border guards. The court arrested him for three months.

Afqan Mukhtarly has been living in Georgia for over two years, fleeing persecution in Azerbaijan. In recent years, he actively participated in actions against the authorities of Azerbaijan held in Tbilisi. -0-