Georgian Court Liquidates Residence Permit of Azerbaijani Opposition Activist

The Tbilisi Court of Appeal on March 21 annulled the residence permit of the Azerbaijani political activist Dashgin Agalarly.

The status with a residence permit in Georgia was previously granted to him by the Tbilisi City Court, the political activist and journalist Afgan Mukhtarly, who lives in Georgia, told Turan.

According to him, the defense party believes that the decision is political, not legal.

According to the decision of the court, Agalarly will have to leave Georgia within 1 month, otherwise he will face deportation.

According to Mukhtarli, during this period UNHCR should keep this issue in the center of attention.

In all likelihood, Agalarly will be sent to a third country.

Agalarly was detained on March 3, 2014 at the request of Interpol when moving from Turkey to Georgia in the Batumi area.

Law enforcement agencies of Georgia initially wanted to extradite him to Azerbaijan, where he was wanted through Interpol on charges of non-payment of taxes for 4,500 euros.

Agalarly spent 6 months in the Tbilisi detention facility. However, in view of the fact that in the Georgian court the accusations of the Azerbaijani side were not confirmed, he was released.

Agalarly is 48 years old. He is the father of two children. Agalarly was an active participant in the national-democratic movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Under the government of the Popular Front in 1992, he was appointed first deputy head of the State Committee for Fuel.

Later he was an activist of the Musavat Party.

The British Foreign Policy Center (think tank on foreign policy) in the report for 2016 noted that Agalarly was persecuted for political reasons. -06D-