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International human rights organization “Committee to Protect Journalists” (CPJ) issued a statement in connection with the arrest of the prominent Azerbaijani journalist Rauf Mirkadirov. The statement is posted on the organization's website.

It is noted that the journalist was arrested on charges of espionage after deportation from Turkey. Mirkadirov has been working in Turkey for the last three years and in his articles has often criticized the authorities of Azerbaijan and Turkey for violating the human rights. In addition, he was involved in programs aimed at promotion of civil dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Nina Ogniyanova, the coordinator of CPJ's Europe and Central Asia Program, stated that Azerbaijan, by the number of imprisoned journalists, is rapidly becoming one of the leading countries in Eurasia. "We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to refuse the fabricated charges and to stop the administration of laws for the suppression of press freedom in the country," she stressed.

According to CPJ, Mirkadirov has become the ninth journalist that has appeared behind the bars in Azerbaijan.

According to the Azerbaijani news portal "Haqqin.az," the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan has also expressed concerns about the sudden deportation of the journalist from Turkey and his arrest.

"In particular, we have assumptions that Rauf Mirkadirov has been arrested for criticizing the Azerbaijani government, or for his participation in projects aimed at developing "national diplomacy" in the framework of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process," the statement of the embassy reads.

It also reads that contacts during the project on "national diplomacy" contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict and the establishment of a trust-based relationship.

According to the police, Rauf Mirkadirov, columnist of Azerbaijani newspaper "Zerkalo", was arrested on April 18 in Ankara on charges of expiration of documents. On April 19 Mirkadirov was deported to Azerbaijan, where he immediately was arrested and put in custody by the MNS on suspicion of treason. On April 21 the court in Baku sanctioned his arrest for three months. Mirkadirov is accused of the cooperation with special services of Armenia, specifically, he is accused of making the transfers of the state secret information, including those about the dislocation of Azerbaijani Armed forces to Armenia during 2008-2009.

Head of the Armenian Research Center "Region" Laura Baghdasaryan, who, according to one of the Azerbaijani investigators, is one of the employees of the special forces of Armenia, with whom Mirkadirov collaborated, called the accusations "demeaning first of all for the special services and the armed forces of Azerbaijan." She believes that "they aren’t worth a damn" if this kind of information can be owned by an ordinary journalist.

"Well, Mirkadirov was one of the authors in our project and attended not live but online conferences on our and IPD site (Institute for Peace and Democracy - Ed.) www.publicdialogues.info. Logically it means that my partners in Azerbaijan – representatives of Peace and Democracy Institute, can also face assaults, since they cooperate with the chief resident of Armenia – i.e. with me. Several questions arise here," Baghdasaryan wrote on her Facebook page.