Azerbaijani Prosecutor's Office rejects version of Afghan Mukhtarly's detention in Tbilisi

The General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan has rejected the allegations that journalist Afghan Mukhtarly was detained in Tbilisi with involvement of the Georgian law enforcers. According to the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office, the journalist was detained at the border of the countries.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Elman Nasyrov, a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Azerbaijani Parliament, announced that he considered the Afghan Mukhtarly's detention as the result of a joint operation of the Georgian and Azerbaijani special services.

On May 29, Afghan Mukhtarly was detained in the territory of the Balaken District (bordering with Georgia, note of the "Caucasian Knot") when he was trying to illegally cross the border on his way to Azerbaijan, reports the website of the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan.

Even in case if video records from surveillance cameras are provided, the situation will unlikely to be clarified, believes Shota Utiashvili, the former chief of the Information and Analytical Department of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

"Firstly, several thousand cars a day pass through the border checkpoint. And secondly, if there was a command to skip a car, border guards would not have shown anyone in which car they saw a man with a plastic bag on his head," explained Shota Utiashvili.

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