The phrase in the title belongs to the President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, who reacted to the news of the detention of Azerbaijani journalist, Afghan Mukhtarli, in this way. Indeed, how could this have happened? The Government of Georgia has not yet responded to this question. We, however, do have some facts that enable us to try and give a response.
On 29 May 2017, at approximately 19:00 in the evening, Azerbaijani civil activist and journalist, Afghan Mukhtarli, disappeared. Later, it was reported that the journalist had been detained in Azerbaijan.
As stated by Mr Mukhtarli’s lawyer, Elchin Sadiqov, the journalist was detained by persons who were unknown to him, who tied his hands and then physically assaulted him. He presumes that the kidnappers were operatives of Georgia’s Secret Services. As stated by Mr Sadiqov, a bag was put over Mr Mukhtarli’s head and he was transported to an unknown location for a period of two hours. During this time, the kidnappers changed vehicles twice. When he was placed inside the third vehicle, Mr Mukhtarli was in the company of Azerbaijani-speaking individuals.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has launched an investigation into this incident on the basis of a statement made by Afghan Mukhtarli’s wife. The investigation was launched under Article 143 of the Criminal Code of Georgia which refers to the illegal restriction of freedom.
According to the statement of Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office: “Afghan Mukhtarli was detained on 29 May at 22:40 by Azerbaijan’s State Border Service patrol on the territory of the Beilagan District as a result of the illegal crossing of Azerbaijan’s border. At the time of his detention, Afghan Mukhtarli showed resistance to State Border Service employees. During the inspection, border guards found a large amount of cash on him.”
The Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan accused Afghan Mukhtarli of resisting law enforcement personnel, illegal border crossing and smuggling. The court imposed a three-month pre-trial detention on him.
Afghan Mukhtarli’s wife, Leila Mustafayeva, brushes aside the possibility of her husband’s detention at the border. She states that her husband was forced to cross the border. Mrs Mustafayeva believes that this is related to her husband’s journalistic activities and notes that the family has experienced organised persecution and oppression because of their critical attitude toward the incumbent Azerbaijani government.
Leila Mustafayeva suspects that the Georgian side was involved in the operation to take her husband to Azerbaijan. Her suspicion was solidified following the statement of Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs made on 1 June.
Specifically, three days after the incident, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Giorgi Mghebrishvili, presented the proceedings of the ongoing investigation to the public. However, even though the investigation was launched following Article 143 of Georgia’s Criminal Code (illegal deprivation of freedom), the Minister did not mention which measures had been taken in order to confirm or reject the veracity of the crime. Instead, the Minister conveyed official information given by Azerbaijan whilst he referred to the kidnapping of the journalist (the Ministry of Internal Affairs started an investigation on this charge) as a “parallel version.”
Whilst the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia acknowledges the high standards of border protection, he nevertheless and without any proof affirms Azerbaijan’s version that Afghan Mukhtarli illegally crossed the border. Further, Giorgi Mghebrishvili provided the public with unconfirmed facts (this he mentioned himself) circulating in the media that Mr Mukhtarli had a plan for how to evade border control and that he used to regularly smuggle non-custom cleared foreign currency to Azerbaijan.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not revealed any investigatory activities or respective results which could have been used to refute the version of forcibly putting a person into a vehicle in the city centre and taking him by the same vehicle to Azerbaijan. This further deepens the public’s suspicions that the aforementioned version could be true. The version offered by Azerbaijan also gives rise to a myriad of questions. Specifically, it is not known why Afghan Mukhtarli, who was persecuted and “exiled” from his homeland, crossed the border especially under his assumption that being in Azerbaijan was dangerous for him.
Oddly, the most important question for the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia had nothing to do with the kidnapping but the authenticity of Afghan Mukhtarli’s journalist credentials. Aleksandre Jejelava stated: “You have to verify whether or not he was really a journalist because I was informed that he was a security guard at Radio Liberty. Thus, he has some relation to journalism but he himself is not a journalist.” The Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia assessed the statement of Georgia’s NGO sector in regard to Mr Mukhtarli’s detention as an “indication of incompetence.” Of note is that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has been referring to Mr Mukhtarli as a journalist since the first day of his detention. After his notorious statement, Aleksandre Jejelava offered a clarification and admitted that he had wrong information in regard to Afghan Mukhtarli’s journalistic activities. He later stated: “This person was the head of Radio Liberty’s security personnel. However, he is an author of journalistic investigations at the same time. Therefore, he had a dual function.” As Mr Jejelava’s relatively “competent” second statement illustrates, he has possibly read Mukhtarli’s articles. However, he does not emphasise the direct link between Mr Mukhtarli’s disappearance and his journalistic activities and believes that it could have been fully possible that the journalist had voluntarily crossed the border.
Contrary to Aleksandre Jejelava, most of the public believes that Afghan Mukhtarli’s disappearance is related to his activities. He has written numerous articles which were critical of the Azerbaijani government and revealed the business interests and corruption schemes of both the government and Ilham Aliyev’s family. He would speak openly about facts of political persecution in Azerbaijan.
Afghan Mukhtarli’s articles have been published on the website of the Regional Media Network. He has cooperated with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and actively contributed to Meydan TV which was founded in 2013 by exiled Azerbaijani activists and writers in collaboration with a German NGO. Most recently, he was researching the business interests of President Aliyev’s family members.
Leila Mustafayeva believes that her husband’s abduction was related to another forthcoming article about the Azerbaijani President’s family business company.
Of note is that on 4 May 2017, on one the websites (haqqin.az) under the Azerbaijani government’s control, an extensive article was published which detailed the Azerbaijani “underground” operating in Tbilisi. Both Afghan Mukhtarli and his wife, Leila Mustafayeva, (a journalist likewise) were named as active members of this underground.
The aforementioned website reported: “Azerbaijani journalists are well aware about Afghan Mukhtarli. However, he is known not as a courageous journalist. Mr Mukhtarli is a completely lacklustre personality and very far from creative inspiration. He serves more like a personal bodyguard instead of engaging in intellectual pursuits.”
An article by Einulla Fatulayev, known as “President Aliyev’s Man,” reads: “Afghan Mukhtarli has become a personal bodyguard of a well-known ‘investigator,’ Khadija Ismailova. The Embassy of the United States of America used to pay him (a failed journalist) AZM 1,000 per month. After Ismailova’s arrest, he covertly ran to Georgia and obtained a temporary residence permit. At the same time, he collaborates with various international NGOs, hostile to Azerbaijan, such as Freedom House, People in Need, Human Rights Watch, NDI and many others.”
It seems that there is a multitude of factors (some of them are given in the 2011 Report of the US State Department) attesting to the interests of the Azerbaijani government to engage in the political persecution of the journalist. The Government of Georgia keeps silence in this regard.
Despite all of the aforementioned circumstances, representatives of the Government of Georgia call upon the public to refrain from making “premature judgments.” On the other hand, the NGO sector and international organisations are calling upon the government to ensure a prompt and independent investigation and emphasising the necessity of keeping the public duly informed about the progress and results of the investigation.
The US State Department also voiced its concern and urged the Government of Georgia to conduct an efficient and transparent investigation without delay and upon the Government of Azerbaijan to release Afghan Mukhtarli from detention, also without delay. Most importantly, the statement clearly indicates the fact of kidnapping. The statement reads: “The United States is disturbed by the reported abduction in Tbilisi, Georgia and the subsequent arrest in Azerbaijan of Azerbaijani journalist, Afghan Mukhtarli.”
According to the statement of the Office of Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the EU continues to follow Afghan Mukhtarli’s case. The statement reads: “The alleged abduction and illegal arbitrary detention of Azerbaijani nationals, including human rights defenders, residing in Georgia followed by their arrest and prosecution in Azerbaijan, demands swift, thorough and transparent investigation.”
It is difficult to predict what the end result of this case will be but several aspects are clear enough today. First of all, the international prestige of the Georgian state has suffered heavy damage and if the investigation fails to be timely and effective, this will further complicate the situation. At the same time, the Government of Georgia finds itself in a very complicated position and despite several feeble attempts at solution, it still remains extremely difficult to settle the situation. At the present moment, the best option for the Government of Georgia is to dilute the discussion on this topic by overshadowing it with another issue which would be absolutely detrimental for public interests. Therefore, civil society should resort to every legal means and effort to ensure that this case does not add up to many previous cases of crimes committed in the past which remain uninvestigated until today.
