The prosecutor's office does not lift the ban on leaving the country for an opposition journalist

Baku/16.03.22/Turan: The Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan has imposed a ban on leaving the country for Saadat Jahangir, an employee of the opposition Azadlig newspaper. For this reason, she cannot go for treatment.

Jahangir told Turan that two years ago she was called as a witness in a criminal case against Niyamaddin Ahmedov, the bodyguard of the leader of the Popular Front Party Ali Karimli. At the same time, her house was searched, money, computers, and a mobile phone were confiscated.

“I need to travel abroad for treatment; therefore, I turned to the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office to check for a ban on crossing the border. I hoped that there was no such ban, because two years had already passed and Niyameddin Ahmedov had been sentenced. A Court of Appeal decided to return the things and money seized during the search in my house. However, as it turned out, the ban is still in place,” the journalist said.

The letter, signed by the head of the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, Nemat Avazov, says: "You have been temporarily banned from crossing the state border."

According to Jahangir, in Azerbaijan, the travel ban is used as a moral torture against citizens with opposition views. “If this absurd ban is not lifted in the near future, I will go to court and then to the European Court,” Jahangir said.

The press service of the Prosecutor General's Office refrained from commenting, noting that the letter from the head of the Investigation Department explains the reasons for imposing restrictions on the journalist's exit from the country.—03B06-