15:29, 28 December 2014

Editor-in-Chief of Radio Liberty Bureau in Baku states mass detention of his staff

Еhe search in the Baku office of Radio Liberty on December 26, 2014. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the "Caucasian Knot"

Azerbaijan holds mass detentions of employees of the Baku office of Radio Liberty; they are forcibly taken to the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), Zeinal Mamedli, the editor-in-chief of the bureau, told the "Caucasian Knot".

On December 26, employees of the GPO conducted a search of the Baku office of Radio Liberty.

According to Mamedli, contrary to the agreement achieved on December 27 that the staff will be called for questioning to the GPO early next week, for them to be accompanied by advocates, on Sunday policemen began forcibly bringing employees of the radio station to investigators.

In total, at least 12 employees were detained, he said.

Thorbjorn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, has noted that the search and the subsequent closure of the Baku office of Radio Liberty gave rise to concern about the freedom of speech in Azerbaijan.

Earlier, Eldar Sultanov, the head of the press service of the GPO, said that the search had been undertaken within the criminal case opened by the Investigating Department for Grave Crimes of the GPO.

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

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent