President of Georgia Receives Spouse of Afgan Mukhtarli

Baku / 06.27.17 / Turan: On Tuesday, Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili received the wife of the Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, who is under arrest, Leila Mustafayeva. The meeting took place at the request of Mustafayeva. She expressed gratitude to Margvelashvili for the support expressed to her arrested husband.

As Mustafayeva told Turan IA, Margvelashvili is the only official of Georgia who called the disappearance of Mukhtarli in Tbilisi a "kidnapping" and regarded it as "a threat to Georgia's sovereignty and security".

Along with this, the details of the disappearance of the journalist in Tbilisi and his arrest in Azerbaijan, and the role of official structures in Georgia were discussed.

The journalist's family is not quite aware of the investigation into the kidnapping of Mukhtarli in Georgia. According to Mustafayeva, the investigation in Georgia is conducted by the police, while they are an interested party, as Mukhtarli stated that he was abducted by men in the uniform of criminal police.

The police began the investigation only after the Western diplomatic missions demanded it. The police are busy hiding it, and this is a crime.

Mustafayeva does not agree with the intention of Georgian law enforcers to interrogate Mukhtarli in Baku. "This is only a waste of time. There is no need to interrogate Afgan, because he already gave us all the information about the circumstances of the abduction and the route by which he was transported. I have already told about this," Mustafayeva said.

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She positively assessed the outcome of the meeting with the Georgian President, who from the very beginning took an objective position on this issue, unlike the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Security.

The administration of the Georgian President intends to keep the issue under control. True, in Georgia the powers of the President are limited, but the principled position of Margvelashvili will at the very least prevent the issue from getting off the agenda of the country's socio-political life.

On the other hand, after the resolution of the European Parliament on the Mukhtarli case, the position of the Prime Minister, which at first categorically rejected the kidnapping of the journalist, also changed. Now he already says that this issue will be investigated.

* Mukhtarli was abducted inn Tbilisi on May 29 and handed over to the authorities of Azerbaijan. The journalist was accused of illegally crossing the border, smuggling and using violence against a border guard.

Last week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding the release of Mukhtarli. -06B-