Этот пост доступен на языках: Русский

Since exiled Azer­bai­jani jour­nal­ist Afgan Mukhtarli dis­ap­peared from Tbilisi, reap­pear­ing a day later in an Azer­bai­jani jail, sus­pi­cions of Georgian involve­ment in his kid­nap­ping have remained. Mukhtarli himself has accused the Georgian gov­ern­ment of com­plic­i­ty, and while this is a charge they deny, local rights groups are becoming impatient with the pace and trans­paren­cy of the official inves­ti­ga­tion into his dis­ap­pear­ance.

On 6 February, impris­oned Azer­bai­jani jour­nal­ist Afgan Mukhtarli was given two days of com­pas­sion­ate release to attend a memorial service for his sister and her two children. The three were found dead in their flat in Zagatala, northern Azer­bai­jan, report­ed­ly from carbon monoxide poisoning. Georgia’s Rustavi 2 TV took advantage of this oppor­tu­ni­ty, inter­view­ing him at his father’s home in Zagatala, some 30 kilo­me­tres from the Georgian border.

Fragments of the interview were broad­cast­ed later that day, on the channel’s ‘Kurieri’ programme, with a more complete version broadcast later that week on ‘P.S’. During these, he spoke in detail of his kid­nap­ping from Georgia and transfer to Azer­bai­jan, and accused Georgia — naming Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili — of being complicit. Mukhtarli, a veteran inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist from Azer­bai­jan, had spoken of this through­out his trial, which concluded with his sen­tenc­ing to 6 years in prison in January for ‘smuggling €10,000 ($11,200) in cash, border trespass, and dis­obey­ing border guards’. The charges were widely regarded outside of Azer­bai­jan to be ‘spurious’.

[Read on OC Media: A government’s fear or bar­gain­ing chips — Political prisoners in Azer­bai­jan]

Mukhtarli was last seen in Georgia by his friend on the evening of 29 May 2017. After failing to return home, he resur­faced again in an Azer­bai­jani jail. 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.

An inves­ti­ga­tion by the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office into his kid­nap­ping has not concluded.

Georgian complicity

Afgan’s wife, jour­nal­ist Leyla Mustafaye­va, says the author­i­ties in Georgia are no longer con­duct­ing regular inves­ti­ga­tions into the facts sur­round­ing her husband’s abduction. She says the reason they give for this is that Azer­bai­jan has refused their requests to speak to him in prison. ‘Over the last nine months, an “imitation” of an inves­ti­ga­tion went on in Georgia, and those following the process have actually been following an imitation’, Mustafaye­va told OC Media. She says the inves­ti­ga­tion needed to be more open and called for more inter­na­tion­al scrutiny of the process.

Mustafaye­va says her husband was given a two-day release for the memorial service, but that this was cut short and on the evening of his interview he was sent back to prison. She believes this was done at the request of Georgian officials.

‘Afgan [had already] spoken harshly about the [Azer­bai­jani] gov­ern­ment in his interview with Azer­bai­jani media — but they didn’t take him back that day. The reaction came after the interview went on air about the Prime Minister of Georgia’.

In his interview with Rustavi 2, Mukhtarli said that at the time of his abduction, he had been inves­ti­gat­ing business links between Azer­bai­jani President Ilham Aliyev and former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivan­ishvili. He accused the Georgian author­i­ties of being complicit, stating that ‘without the per­mis­sion of the Prime Minister, they would not have been able to get me across the border’.

Elman Fattah, deputy head of the oppo­si­tion Azer­bai­jani Musavat party, told OC Media that the interview could damage the com­pro­mise between the Azer­bai­jani and Georgian gov­ern­ments.

‘It’s a well-known fact that Afgan Mukhtarli’s kid­nap­ping took place as a result of an agreement between the two countries. After [the interview], there will be more focus on Georgia, which will be exposed to inter­na­tion­al pressure. The fact is, this mourning ceremony allowed Afgan Mukhtarli to speak clearly about the events sur­round­ing his abduction, and reduced the pos­si­bil­i­ty for Georgia to refute being involved.’

Tamar Khu­lor­da­va, who chairs parliament’s Committee On European Inte­gra­tion and sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, remains sceptical of alle­ga­tions of collusion from the Georgian side. ‘We need to get the facts right. The interview is one thing, but is not suf­fi­cient for estab­lish­ing facts’, Khu­lor­da­va told OC Media. ‘I also listened to the TV interview where Mukhtarli spec­u­lates on who ordered his kid­nap­ping without providing any details on his alle­ga­tions. Georgian author­i­ties have requested the pos­si­bil­i­ty to interview Mukhtarli and so far Azer­bai­jan is refusing it. All Georgia can do is to inves­ti­gate.’

Accepting the interview as evidence

The Tbilisi office of inter­na­tion­al rights group Human Rights House has been following the inves­ti­ga­tion in Georgia. Archil Chopikashvili, a lawyer for the group, says the interview could have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the inves­ti­ga­tion, but that the Prosecutor’s Office must add it to the inves­ti­ga­tion papers as evidence.

‘We have submitted this interview to the Prosecutor’s Office as evidence. By law, this should be added to the inves­ti­ga­tion papers, but we have not been given a response. We hope it will be added, in which case we will send the document of addition along with the court verdict in Azer­bai­jan to the European Court of Human Rights’.

Rusudan Mchedlishvili, from local rights group Article 42 of the Con­sti­tu­tion, say they have sent a joint appeal with the Human Rights House to the Georgian author­i­ties to recognise the interview as evidence and to bring more trans­paren­cy to their inves­ti­ga­tion.

‘In this interview, Afgan Mukhtarli talked about all the details of how the kid­nap­ping occurred — this is very important. We asked the gov­ern­ment for a formal meeting to discuss them. We plan for many human rights organ­i­sa­tions to attend. We also appealed to the European Par­lia­ment to establish a special com­mis­sion to monitor the process.’

Mchedlishvili says that if the interview is ignored and the author­i­ties continue to remain tight-lipped about their inves­ti­ga­tions, rights groups will start to protest again.

Tamar Khu­lor­da­va defended the author­i­ties’ response to the affair. ‘Three very high ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been removed (including the Chief of Border Guard Service and the Chief of the Coun­ter­in­tel­li­gence Service)’, she said. ‘The issue is widely and openly debated in the Georgian civil society and media. This demon­strates the reaction that the country has to such incidents.’

Despite official denials, talk of the pos­si­bil­i­ty of Georgian involve­ment has remained a talking point in Georgia’s media. Local rights groups and inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions have warned of the damage the incident could cause to Georgia’s rep­u­ta­tion. And Europe has already taken note — several members of the European Par­lia­ment raised concerns to OC Media about Georgia’s image as a demo­c­ra­t­ic country amidst the inves­ti­ga­tion of Mukhtarli’s abduction.

Here, Khu­lor­da­va agrees with the government’s critics. ‘The situation around Mukhtarli’s case is unclear and a stain to our rep­u­ta­tion’, she said. ‘The first thing that needs to be done is a proper inves­ti­ga­tion of what happened.’

Comments

comments