Afghan Mukhtarly's wife intends to stay in Georgia

Leyla Mustafaeva, the wife of Afghan Mukhtarly, an Azerbaijani opposition journalist, has changed her decision to leave Georgia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that after the kidnapping of Afghan Mukhtarly, his family members treated their further stay in Georgia as unsafe. The journalist's wife announced that the family members of Afghan Mukhtarly intended to leave Georgia.

"Now I have decided to stay in Tbilisi, since I have to monitor the progress of the investigation into the kidnapping of my husband," stated Leyla Mustafaeva at a press conference at the NGO "Human Rights House".

According to the woman, she and her husband were not granted political asylum in Georgia. "We have been refused with the statement that we are engaged in too dangerous activities and that fact does not meet the interests of Georgia," said Leyla Mustafaeva.

Leyla Mustafaeva has also added that she does not feel herself safe. "Friends in Azerbaijan tell me that there are gossips as if they also want to take me to Azerbaijan," noted the journalist's wife.

Leyla Mustafaeva associates the kidnapping of her husband with his professional activities as a journalist.

"In Georgia, we also continued collecting materials about corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan, and we published the information," emphasized Leyla Mustafaeva.

In Georgia, a criminal case was instituted on the fact of the Afghan Mukhtarly's kidnapping.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.