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The EU, US, OSCE, and local and inter­na­tion­al rights groups have urged Azer­bai­jani author­i­ties to release Azer­bai­jani jour­nal­ist Afgan Mukhtarli, who was sentenced on 12 January to 6 years in prison. Georgian author­i­ties have also faced criticism for a the slow pace of the inves­ti­ga­tion into his abduction from Tbilisi.

The US State Depart­ment said in a 12 January statement they were ‘disturbed’ by Mukhtarli’s sen­tenc­ing, and that charges against him were ‘widely con­sid­ered to be polit­i­cal­ly motivated’.

Mukhtarli was convicted of smuggling €10,000 ($11,200) in cash, border trespass, and dis­obey­ing border guards.

Harlem Désir, The OSCE Rep­re­sen­ta­tive on Freedom of the Media also condemned the court’s ruling, saying the sentence was based on ‘spurious charges’ and were a ‘clear attack on free media’.

The European External Action Service, the EU’s diplo­mat­ic and defence arm, said the sen­tenc­ing poses ‘serious questions as regards the exercise of fun­da­men­tal rights including the freedom of expres­sion and media and due process of law in Azer­bai­jan’.

The US urged the gov­ern­ment of Azer­bai­jan to release Mukhtarli and ‘all those incar­cer­at­ed for exer­cis­ing their fun­da­men­tal freedoms’.  The OSCE’s Désir hoped that the verdict would be over­turned on appeal. He has pre­vi­ous­ly called on the author­i­ties to drop all charges against Mukhtarli.

Mukhtarli was abducted last May in Tbilisi where he had resided for years. After failing to return home in the evening on 29 May 2017, he resur­faced again in detention in Azer­bai­jan.

His lawyer Elchin Sadigov told reporters that Mukhtarli had been kidnapped outside his flat on Tbilisi’s Chonkadze Street by four Georgian speaking men. According to his lawyers, ‘three of Mukhtarli’s four kid­nap­pers wore police uniforms, and one was dressed in civilian clothing’. His lawyers say that his kid­nap­pers called their superiors every 20 minutes to report in.

Georgian authorities under pressure

Since the abduction, Georgian author­i­ties have come under fire for not releasing more details about the case, and not pub­lish­ing video materials that could show how exactly the jour­nal­ist was abducted.

Désir recalled that the inves­ti­ga­tion by Georgian author­i­ties has still not been completed. The US said they are con­tin­u­ing to ‘closely follow the Georgian inves­ti­ga­tion into the reported abduction’, and reit­er­at­ed their call that ‘it be full, trans­par­ent, and timely’.

The EU also indicated that the ‘alleged abduction […] continues to demand thorough and trans­par­ent inves­ti­ga­tion’.

Nata Dzvel­ishvili, head of inde­pen­dent media watchdog the Georgian Charter of Jour­nal­is­tic Ethics, said that the questions to Georgian author­i­ties remain the same today as on the day of Mukhtarli’s abduction.

‘They still have not been able to answer the existing questions, which obviously strength­ens sus­pi­cions that indeed, Georgia was in some way complicit in this shameful case’, Dzvel­ishvili told OC Media.

According to her, serious inter­na­tion­al pressure is the only way to influence Georgia’s gov­ern­ment into at least sug­gest­ing ‘how a person, who dis­ap­pears in Tbilisi, ends up in a Baku prison’.

Mukhtarli’s wife Leyla Mustafaye­va, who has fled Tbilisi to seek refuge in Europe, has also accused Georgian author­i­ties of being complicit in her husband’s arrest and impris­on­ment.

The Interior Ministry told OC Media that the Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the inves­ti­ga­tion. The Prosecutor’s Office has yet to respond to OC Media’s request for details.

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