Azerbaijani GPO issues warning for publications about Mukhtarly

Mustafa Gadjibeili, the editor-in-chief of the "BastaInfo" portal, has received a warning from the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) in connection with the publication of data, "the public distribution of which is prohibited by law." Mr Gadjibeili said that the warning was caused by materials about the case of journalist Afghan Mukhtarly.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Afghan Mukhtarly, who left Azerbaijan for Georgia in 2014, disappeared on May 29 in Tbilisi. According to his story, he was beaten up during his kidnapping.

According to Mustafa Gadjibeili, the article "USD 300,000 for Afghan Mukhtarly's head?" reported, with reference to the Georgian MP Givi Targamadze, that the kidnapping of Mukhtarly was ordered by "an Azerbaijani oligarch." The second article "Sensational news about Afghan Mukhtarly" quoted the words of the advocate Nemat Kerimli that Mukhtarly had crossed the border officially through the border-customs checkpoint, and not in some wrong place, as Azerbaijani law enforcers had asserted.

The GPO has concluded that the articles "damage the inquiry process" and "mislead the public."

The "Musavat" Party, where Mustafa Gadjibeili is an activist, has treated the warning as an act of pressure.

Alesker Mamedli, an expert in the media law and a member of the "Civil Society Platform", is convinced that mass media are free to investigate any problems, by presenting different opinions and versions of events. The only exceptions are stipulated in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), he has noted.

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