01 November 2018, 23:51
Editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani website complains about ban to leave the country
Border guards did not allow Mustafa Gadjibeili, the editor-in-chief of the "Bastainfo.com" website, to fly to Georgia. According to his story, the website was blocked after the publication about the attempt on the Mayor of the city of Ganja, but he was not informed about the ban on leaving the country.
According to Gadjibeili, on October 31, he could not fly from the Baku Airport to Tbilisi to take part in a conference. He has linked the ban with the case, in which he figures as a witness.
"In July, the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) launched a criminal case in connection with publications of a number of media about the events in Ganja. Our website was among these publications, and was blocked along with others," said Gadjibeili.
At night on July 3, after an accident at an electric power station in Mingachevir, Baku and other cities of Azerbaijan had electricity outage. On the same day an attempt was made on Elmar Veliev, the Mayor of Ganja. 14 social network users were arrested for their publications on social networks about the July 3 power outages and an attempt on Ganja Mayor. The GPO demanded to close a number of websites, including the "Bastainfo.com". In connection with the publications in this website and on the "Criminalaz.com" one, a criminal case was initiated about the intentional publication of false information.
Elshan Gasanov, the head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners, has treated the blocking of the websites that wrote about the events in Ganja as a hidden form of censorship.
Yalchin Imanov, a legal expert, has noted that it is illegal to restrict the freedom of movement of witnesses.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 1, 2018 at 05:42 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: Faik Medjid Source: CK correspondent
