France charges suspects for attack on Azerbaijani blogger

Baku/28.04.22/Turan: French magistrates have charged four men over an attack in March 2021 in western France on an exiled Azerbaijani blogger who has been bitterly critical of President Ilham Aliyev and his family, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The four, three of whom were born in Azerbaijan and one in neighbouring Georgia, were charged with attempted murder in an organised group and remanded in custody ahead of trial.

Mahammad Mirzali was attacked in March last year in the western French city of Nantes. Several individuals rushed out of a vehicle to punch and stab him, fleeing the scene and leaving the victim with multiple wounds including to the head.

The prosecutor of the nearby city of Rennes, Philippe Astruc, told AFP that the four were aged between 26 and 35 and had no criminal record.

Mirzali runs a widely followed YouTube channel called Made in Azerbaijan where he posts videos with bitter personal attacks on Aliyev, his wife vice president Mehriban Aliyeva and other family members.

French press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which had called on France to shed full light on the crime, welcomed the arrests.

But it added: "The investigation must continue and lead to the masterminds."    Aliyev, who has ruled Azerbaijan since 2003, is regularly accused by rights groups of trampling on freedom of expression in the ex-Soviet state.

But the hydrocarbon-rich nation on the Caspian Sea has also cultivated close ties with Western governments, in particular the United States and Britain. -0-