One more journalist banned from leaving the country

Baku/01.11.18/Turan: On October 31, the editor of the Bastainfo.com website, Mustafa Hajibeyli, was not allowed to leave Azerbaijan for an international conference in Georgia. He was not allowed through the border control at the Baku airport. The border guards told the journalist that the prosecutor general"s office had imposed a ban on his departure. "After the well-known events in Ganja, on July 7, a number of sites were blocked. Because of the publications on these sites, a criminal case was initiated. One of these sites was," Mustafa Hajibeyli told Turan.

He said that the criminal case and the ban on leaving the country illegal. The journalist noted that he had been brought in as a witness, and had not been warned that he was forbidden to leave the country.

Hajibeyli intends to appeal against the ban on leaving the court. He has already filed a lawsuit against the site blocking. However, the court of first instance rejected his claim, and the court of appeal on October 31 left this decision in force.

Several journalists and numerous civil society activists have been banned from leaving the country for far-fetched reasons. -06D-