Azerbaijani journalist Afghan Mukhtarlin The claim against Azerbaijan and Georgia was won in the European Court. The European Court of Human Rights has decided that Baku and Tbilisi should pay a total of 21,000 euros in compensation to the journalist.
The court found that Georgia violated the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights on human freedom and personal integrity with the episodes of his abduction, ill-treatment and illegal transfer to Azerbaijan. And Azerbaijan has violated the articles of freedom and personal immunity, as well as respecting personal and family rights.
According to the court decision, Georgia must pay 12 thousand 500 euros, Azerbaijan – 8 thousand 500 euros.
Mukhtarli left Azerbaijan in 2015 after an investigation into the corruption of the authorities. On May 29, 2017, in the center of Tbilisi, he was attacked, beaten, tied, put his head in a bag, pushed into a car, and in that condition was taken to the border and transferred to Azerbaijan.
In Azerbaijan, he was accused of illegal border crossing and smuggling and sentenced to 6 years in prison.
As a result of international pressure on Baku, in March 2020, Afghan Mukhtarli was released and went to Germany.
Georgia denies the accusations of being involved in Mukhtarli’s kidnapping and cooperating with Azerbaijan’s special services in that case, but the heads of Georgia’s counter-intelligence and border guard services were dismissed after the incident.
