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“The information stating that two employees of U.S. Senate arrived in Azerbaijan to commit espionage is nonsense,” it is said in the statement of U.S. embassy to Azerbaijan according to Azerbaijani news portal Haqqin.az. The statement has been released in connection with the raging scandal around the promulgated list of journalist Khadija Ismailova on Azerbaijani opposition representatives implicated in cooperation with the authorities.

It is said in the statement that the staff of U.S. Congress are sent to Azerbaijan to meet the employees of the embassy, officials and representatives of Civil Society. The purpose of the visit is to inform the legislature of U.S. about the situation in Azerbaijan.

Haqqin.az as well notes that the General Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan called journalist Khadija Ismailova for questioning about the distribution of documents that disclose state secrets. Ismailova herself wrote about this on her Facebook page. According to her, she was called as a witness.

The portal notes that the question is all about the memo of the Ministry of National Defense classified as “top secret”. It refers to the successful recruitment of one of the opposition figures.

Note that last week a report appeared at the disposal of Azerbaijani news portal Haqqin.az submitted by journalist Khadija Ismailova. The report gives the names of Azerbaijani political and public figures that were exposed to cooperation with authorities of Azerbaijan. The list includes such names as the chief editor of Yeni Musavat newspaper, Rauf Arifoglu, head of the Musavat Party, Isa Gambar, journalist Eynula Fatulayev, opposition politician Eldar Namazov, the family of former Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elcibey and so on.