Azerbaijani Journalist Afghan Mukhtarli Released from Prison

Azerbaijani journalist Afghan Mukhtarli has been released from prison ahead of term, after serving 3 years instead of 6.

Investigative journalist Mukhtarli went missing from Tbilisi on May 29. A day later he appeared in jail in Azerbaijan, arrested on charges of illegal border crossing, smuggling money and police disobedience. On January 12, 2018, Mukhtarli was sentenced to six years in prison by Belaqani District Court in North-Western Azerbaijan.

The news of Mukhtarli’s release was shared by his brother on Facebook.

“My brother Afghan Mukhtarli has been released. He was taken directly to the airport and went to Germany”, he wrote. 

Following his release, Mukhtarli flew to Germany, where his family lives in political emigration.

Mukhtarli’s bizarre disappearance in Tbilisi led to widespread belief that the Georgian government was involved.

Mukhtarli regularly expressed his belief that the Georgian authorities, including then–Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, conspired with Azerbaijan to deliver him across the border. 

Mukhtarli’s wife, Azerbaijani journalist and activist Leila Mustafayeva addressed her husband’s imprisonment with a Facebook post, calling the verdict “a joint decision of Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities, since the Georgian Dream’s government, led by Prime Minister Kvirikashvili, is complicit in Afgan’s arrest and imprisonment.”

On 15 June, the European Parliament passed a resolution urging Georgia to conduct a “prompt, thorough, transparent and effective investigation”, to bring the perpetrators to justice, and “clarify beyond any doubt all suspicion regarding the involvement of Georgian state agents in the forced disappearance.”

By Elene Dzebisashvili