A U.S. State Department official says Washington is concerned by a raid on the Baku bureau of RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, during which investigators from the state prosecutors office shut down the premises after seizing company materials. The investigators, who entered the bureau on the morning of December 26 accompanied by armed police officers, ransacked the company safe and confiscated computers and official stamps. They also ordered staff members to leave the building, after holding them in a room for several hours without telephone or computer access. Several staff members have since been summoned for questioning. The crackdown on Ismayilova and the Baku bureau comes amid a sweep of arrests and closures that critics say are aimed at silencing antigovernment voices. Azerbaijan is currently believed to be holding as many as 100 political prisoners, including Leyla Yunus, the director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy and one of the countrys best known human rights activists.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 22:14:11 +0000
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