Azerbaijani anticorruption blogger charged with disobeying police
A prominent Azerbaijani blogger whose efforts to expose high-level corruption have irked President Ilham Aliyev's government has been detained and charged with disobeying the police, his lawyer says.
Lawyer Elcin Sadiqov spoke to RFE/RL hours after friends of Mehman Huseynov said he had been forced into a car by men in plainclothes in downtown Baku on January 9 and had not been seen since.
Sadiqov said that Huseynov was brought to the Nasimi district court for a hearing, and faces up to 30 days in jail if found guilty.
In recent weeks, Huseynov had posted photographs of villas he alleged belonged to government officials and lawmakers and interviewed workers who built the homes.
Rights groups and government critics say Aliyev, who succeeded his father in 2003, has used politically motivated arrests and other methods to stifle dissent in the oil-rich former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus.
Help us be even more cool!
