Human Rights Watch representative expelled from Azerbaijan following 30-hour detention at airport
Azerbaijani authorities refused to allow the senior South Caucasus researcher of Human Rights Watch, Giorgi Gogia, to enter the country. He was planning to attend the trials of Azerbaijani human rights defenders Rasul Jafarov and Intigam Aliyev who were arrested on bogus charges in August 2014, the site of the organization reports.
According to the article, when Gogia arrived at Heydar Aliyev International Airport, the immigration officials took his passport. Thirty-one hours later they handed his passport to the flight crew aboard the plane Gogia took back to Tbilisi. No explanation was provided by the Azerbaijani side.
“Barring Giorgi Gogia from attending the trial hearings shows just how far Azerbaijan’s authorities have taken their crackdown on human rights. They’ve ruthlessly silenced many critical voices inside the country, and now they don’t want to let anyone in to bear witness to what they are doing,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, adding that it is shocking that less than three months before the opening of the European Games, the government of Azerbaijan is closing the country to outside scrutiny.
The organization highlights that it is the first time that Azerbaijani authorities have denied Human Rights Watch staff members entry to the country.
The American outlet The New York Times writes that as a Georgian citizen, Mr. Gogia does not need a visa to enter Azerbaijan, and he has visited the country several times a year for more than a decade.
In a tweet, Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s former human-rights commissioner, termed the actions toward Gogia a “sad sign of worsening clamp down,” Eurasianet.org reads.
“Authorities in Azerbaijan have not provided any explanation to us,” said HRW Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia Rachel Denber to Eurasianet.org.
The correspondent of Caucasian Knot was not able to get comments on the case either in the Foreign Ministry or in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan. The spokespersons for these agencies said they had no information about Gogia’s refusal and expel.
The Russian service of BBC adds that Human Rights Watch often speaks up criticizing Azerbaijani authorities for the situation with the human rights, and official Baku considers the criticism to be biased and groundless.
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