MARCH 17 (The Bulletin) — Afqan Muxtarli, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist who was kidnapped from Tbilisi in 2017 where he had been living in exile and handed over to police in Azerbaijan, was unexpectedly freed from prison in Baku (March 17). Mr Muxtarli, who was convicted of smuggling and illegally crossing the Azerbaijani-Georgian border and sent to prison for six years, always maintained that he was targeted because of his journalism. He had fled Azerbaijan in 2014 because he said that he was warned that he would be arrested. Human rights activists accused the Georgian authorities of colluding in the abduction of Mr Muxtarli.
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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin
— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020