The Baku Court of Appeals has dismissed the appeal of investigative journalist Afghan Mukhtarli who has been arrested on 3-month, pretrial detention, APA reports.
The journalist has been accused of illegally crossing the state border (Article 318.1 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code), smuggling contraband (206.1) and resisting the command of a customs’ officer (315.2).
Mukhtarli was kidnapped on May 29 in Tbilisi and the next day appeared under arrest in Baku.
Recently an article appeared in an Azerbaijani government-run news site about “underground” Azerbaijani activists living in Tbilisi.
In the article, Mukhtarli was mentioned in addition to the famous surgeon Farman Jeyranov, the Deputy Chairwoman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Gozel Bayramli. Jeyranov and Bayramli have recently been detained by the Azerbaijani authorities.
