The United States Government has demanded this Wednesday that the Azerbaijani authorities “immediately” release six journalists “unjustly” detained for their work in favor of Human Rightsamong them Rufat Safarov and Sevinj Vagifgizi, recently awarded by Washington for their investigations into government corruption.
“The United States calls on the Government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Rufat Safarov, Sevinj Vagifgizi, Azer Gasimli, Farid Mehralizada, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, Gubad Ibadoghlu, to the recently detained associates of the independent media Meydan TV, and to many other people detained for their work in favor of Human Rights,” said the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
In a statement released by the State Department, Blinken has denounced in particular the detention of Safarov and Vagifgizi, awarded this week by Washington precisely for their activism. This Monday Vagifgizi received ‘in absentia’ the 2024 Anti-Corruption Champions award for his investigations into illegal tenders and large-scale embezzlement by the Government.
“His work has provoked the wrath of the authorities, and he has remained in preventive detention since November 2023,” the press release states. For his part, Safarov has been imprisoned since December 3 for his work documenting the politically motivated arrests and government corruption. He was arrested days before he traveled to the United States to receive the Human Rights Defender Award from the Secretary of State.
“The United States is deeply concerned not only by these arrests, but by the increasing repression of civil society and the media in Azerbaijan,” Blinken said. The head of American diplomacy has urged the authorities of the Asian country to release people detained “unjustly for their defense of Human Rights”, end “its repression of civil society”, in compliance with “the commitments it made upon joining the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).”
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