22 December 2024,   11:59
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Afgan Mukhtarli named kidnapping scheme and alleged customer


"It happened with Kvirikashvili"s sanction and probably by his order," Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli said in an interview with P.S. Afgan Mukhtarli said that high ranking officials were involved in his kidnapping from Georgia.

Azeri journalist recalled his kidnapping with the P.S. and said he had been attacked by three people. According to him, his kidnappers wore the forms of Georgian criminal police.

Mukhtarli said that they had changed cars three times and when the plastic bag was removed from his head, he was already in Azerbaijan, in the border department.

The journalist is accused of illegal crossing of the border, resistance to border guards and smuggling of money

The Georgian side is waiting for a reasonable time to pass to make statements regarding Afgan Mukhtarli"s case.

The friend of Azerbaijan journalist, Khadija Ismailova, compares the kidnapping of Afgan Mukhtarli to the 80s in Western Europe when Iran"s special services kidnapped and killed dissidents. According to her, there are 145 political prisoners in Azerbaijan, out of which 11 are journalists.

Khadija Ismailova talks about the article, where the thirty person named is almost arrested.

"A few days before the kidnapping of Afgan, an article about the specific people appeared on the website haqqin.az which we call herald since if they mention you, you will be arrested. Reportedly, the article described coordination mechanism of Azeri Opposition in Georgia. Afgan, Deputy Chairman of the People"s Front, Gozel Bayramli, journalist Ilgar Valiev and Farman Jeiranov, the director of the clinic "Lancet" in Tbilisi were named as leaders of the opposition, "- said Ismailova.

According to Hadija Ismailovva, the Azerbaijani government spends millions of dollars to bribe the world"s politicians.

"Now you have to investigate what personal interests your government members have in the dirty money that the oligarchs invest in Georgia," said journalist Hadija Ismailova.

Afgan Mukhtarli"s case has already been sent to Strasbourg. The journalist complains against two states, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Mukhtarli was kidnapped from the centre of Tbilisi on May 29, 2017 and was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment.

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