Journalist Elchin Mamed states he is banned from leaving Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani border guards did not let Elchin Mamed, a journalist and public activist, out of the country without explaining the reasons, and took away his passport. This was reported by the journalist himself, who intends to challenge this decision in court.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Elchin Mamed, the chairman of the NGO "Legal Education of Sumgait Youth" and the editor-in-chief of the on-line edition "Yukselish Namine" (In the name of revival), was detained on May 29 upon his arrival from Brussels. According to his story, after his detention he was questioned at the Chief Department for Combating Organized Crime (known as GUBOP) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), and released.

"Today, I was heading to Georgia to participate in the international youth seminar "Herrsching", organized by the German government. But at the border checkpoint "RedBridge" I was told that my departure from the country was banned. They took away my passport and didn't return it, without specifying who had introduced the ban," the journalist explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He treated the actions of border guards as "illegal." "I'm a lawyer myself; and I know that when someone is not allowed out of the country, he or she should be informed about the body that had introduced the ban," said Mamed.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.