06:32, 13 January 2018

US urge Azerbaijan to release Afghan Mukhtarly

Afghan Mukhtarly. Photo: a fragment of the leaflets issued by the supporters of the Azerbaijani journalist https://www.irfs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/afgan-mukhtarli.jpg

The US Department of State is concerned over the verdict to Afghan Mukhtarly and calls on Azerbaijan to release the journalist.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 12, in Azerbaijan, the court sentenced Afghan Mukhtarly to six years of imprisonment on the charge of illegal crossing of the border, smuggling and rendering resistance to a public official with use of violence. The NGO "Reporters Without Borders" (RWB) has declared that the verdict to Afghan Mukhtarly is a terrible signal to other Azerbaijani journalists in exile.

On May 30, 2017, Afghan Mukhtarly, who left for Georgia in 2014, was kidnapped in Tbilisi and brought to Baku.

Washington treats the verdict to the Azerbaijani journalist as politically motivated, the RIA "Novosti" reports with reference to the statement release by the US Department of State.

In his Twitter, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert has written that the US continues to monitor the investigation into the kidnapping of Afghan Mukhtarly in Georgia.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot'.