The wife of a convicted journalist accuses the prime minister of Georgia of insincerity

Baku / 12.04.19 / Turan: Leyla Mustafayeva, spouse of imprisoned journalist Afgan Mukhtarly, speaking Friday in Vienna at the conference "Attack on journalists: a threat to media freedom", expressed regret that the investigation into the abduction of her husband in Tbilisi in May 2017 year is not progressing.

The statement by the Georgian prime minister that the government is waiting for the end of the investigation to express an attitude is insincere, she said. Leyla indicated that political prisoners had been pardoned recently, but they did not release Afgan. This means that the authorities cannot forgive him to expose corruption in Azerbaijan.

"We have always been threatened. Back in 2011, I was taken to the police station in Baku, accusing me of preventing the police from investigating the activities of drug dealers. At the time, Afghan was engaged in corruption in the army. He was offered a bribe to stop it. When he refused, the pressure on his relatives began. His father passed away from a heart attack," she said.

Leyla further reported that when the arrests began in Azerbaijan, the family was forced to move to Georgia, where he continued to investigate corruption in Azerbaijan. It was after these publications that Afgan was abducted and transferred to Azerbaijan, where he was imprisoned.

There is no critical press left in Azerbaijan, the opposition media in Azerbaijan are now working from abroad, but they are blocked by the authorities inside the country.

She expressed regret that Western diplomats in Baku do not criticize the authorities for such a policy.

One of those who wrote graffiti on the monument to the former president was released recently, but then he was sent to jail again for an interview, where he said he did not repent of his deed.

This is the true attitude of the Azerbaijani authorities to freedom of speech, said Leyla Mustafayeva. -0-