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The interrogations of staffers of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, who work in the foreign missions, on the criminal case against a former diplomat, Arif Mammadov, are still underway. The diplomats are called to Baku and demanded to sign under ready testimony statements. Otherwise, they are threatened to be sued, Turan agency reports citing informed sources.

Samir Ismayilov is reportedly among those diplomats. He used to work under Arif Mammadov’s leadership in the Azerbaijan mission in Strasbourg. He is persistently being called to Baku. When he demanded an official calling letter, pressures and threats started. As a result, he flatly refused to return to Azerbaijan at all, which was followed by his withdrawal from his foreign office ahead of time by the Foreign Ministry, the agency points.

In an interview with Turan, Arif Mammadov confirmed that Ismayilov was persecuted and pressured. Nevertheless, neither the diplomat, nor the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan commented on the situation. The Prosecutor General’s Office promised to “examine” the case.

Earlier this year, Arif Mammadov, a top official from the Azerbaijani Foreign Office, was deprived of his diplomatic status at the OIC and was dismissed from a number of organizations. The reason was that he had criticized the Azerbaijani authorities on his Facebook after a fire in a new residential building took the lives of 15 people because of low-quality siding. In addition, everyone who had liked the post also lost their jobs, including a number of diplomats, Mammadov’s colleagues. There were five diplomats among the users who had liked the post, namely, Farakh Gezalov and Anar Madatli (staffers at Azerbaijan Embassy in Belgium); Javid Musayev (advisor at Azerbaijan Embassy in Kuwait); Ramiz Valiyev (Charge d'Affaires of Azerbaijan in Syria); and Hikmet Hajiyev (Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry). Subsequently, the latter distanced himself from Mammadov but everyone in the list above were forced to write humiliating explanations.

Five diplomats have already refused to return to Azerbaijan: Farid Subhanverdiyev and Anar Hasanov made a decision to remain in Australia, Nakhid Jafarov in the Netherlands, Arif Mammadov in Belgium. The Azerbaijani Ambassador to Spain, Altay Efendiyev, also made a similar decision calling Ilham Aliyev’s directive a “fabrication” and a dirty campaign against the Foreign Office of Azerbaijan.