Nakhichevan: journalists claim unlawful detention at the border

In the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), Ilgar Nasibov, a correspondent of the online edition "contact.az", and Elman Abbasov, an employee of the portal "nakhchivanhumanrights.org", report about their illegal detention on December 8 at the customs point "Sadarak" on the Azerbaijani-Turkish border.

The journalists arrived at the "Sadarak" Customs on December 8 on a complaint of the local businessman Muhammad Gurbanov, who claimed that he had been extorted a bribe by local customs officers.

At the customs, the journalists were surrounded by some 30-35 people, who took away all their recording devices and erased all the records. "These were customs officers and other people close to them," Abbasov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his story, the journalists had arrived at the customs in order to film the procedure of clearing the goods imported from Turkey by businessman Gurbanov and detained by the officers of the customs checkpoint "Sadarak".

In the evening on December 10, Abbasov and Nasibov were released; however, their video cameras and dictaphone were not returned.

Employees of the customs checkpoint "Sadarak" told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that they were unaware about the date of return of the confiscated equipment back to journalists.

On the following day, December 9, Hyakimeldostu Mekhtiev, another journalist, a regional correspondent of the Institute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), stated his detention in Nakhichevan.

According to his story, he was detained and brought to the Nakhichevan City Police Division. An administrative proceeding on charges of committing a road accident was initiated against him.

The journalist denies the charges and associates his administrative case with the events on December 8 at the "Sadarak" Customs, where he helped journalists Nasibov and Abbasov.