Azerbaijani writer Khalida Khalid and her assistant Shamkhal Guseinov released in Iran

Iranian authorities have released two citizens of Azerbaijan – the writer Khalida Khalid and her driver and helper Shamkhal Guseinov, who were arrested on April 30, said Elman Abdullaev, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan.

Let us remind you that Khalida Khalid and Shamkhal Guseinov were arrested together with four activists of the movement for the rights of Azerbaijanis of the South (Iranian) Azerbaijan by the Iranian secret service ETTELAAT.

"Khalida Khalid and Shamkhal Guseinov have been handed to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran and will soon return home," Elman Abdullaev told reporters in the evening on June 3 and refused to make further comments.

So far, the "Caucasian Knot" has no comments of the officials of the Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan.

According to Iranian media, Khalida and Guseinov were accused "of illegal actions and establishment of illegal connections"; then, reports appeared that they were charged with espionage. In their turn, Azerbaijani experts expressed the opinion that the fate of the detainees was the subject of political bargaining.

Khalida Khalid is a fellow of the foreign countries' literature and foreign literary ties department at the Institute of Literature named after Nizami of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan; for more than 10 years she is a doctoral student at the Institute. The subject of her researches is the creative work of Shakhriyar, an Iranian poet of the 20^th century, who was an ethnic Azerbaijani.