Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev again detained, now in Moscow airport because of drugs
Russian customs officers detained Eynulla Fatullayev, an Azerbaijani journalist and editor-in-chief of the news websites Haqqin.az and Virtualaz.org, in Moscow airport in a suspicion of attempting to transport 190-gram drugs, Haqqin.az reports.
Fatullayev said he was unexpectedly detained at the airport immediately after his plane from Baku landed. The Customs officials of the airport thoroughly searched the journalist, which lasted more than an hour.
The journalist was to cover the first World Olympians Forum in Moscow. However, he refused to take part in the works of the Forum as a sign of protest.
This is the second case this October Fatullayev faces such an incident. Earlier this month, Eynulla Fatullayev was detained in Calais, France by the local police. The incident reportedly took place when the Haqqin.az camera crew, led by Fatullayev, was at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel working on a story about the refugees, who try to get to the UK through the channel. Ali Sultanov, the cameraman, and Idris Heydarov, the director, were detained with Eynulla Fatullayev. After some time, the police released them all. The Azerbaijani media connected Fatullayev’s detention with the activities carried out in France by European Information Human Rights Center, an organization supervised by the Azerbaijani authorities.
Back in 2014, it was revealed that Eynulla Fatullayev, a former “political prisoner,” teamed with the odious leader of left-anarchist movement "Occupy Frankfurt," Thomas Pilz, to establish the European Information Human Rights Center in Strasbourg in May 2013. Garri Mourei, a human rights defender from Germany, and a few agents of influence from Turkey were also involved. Still, before the official registration in Strasbourg, the organization had received a grant of approximately 100,000 Euros in April 2013 with the support of Fatullayev's Baku patrons and under his direct supervision in accord with the scheme of the Council of State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations under the Auspices of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Under the supervision of Ali Hasanov – the head of Department of Social Political Issues of the President Administration – the members of this organization were assigned to find and replicate real or imaginary evidences of human rights abuses in the European countries. They were further ordered to compile dossiers (compromising materials) about leading the European politicians (from Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark and other) who criticized the Azerbaijan policy, and transfer them to Baku. The initiator of this “endeavor”, as well as the coordinator for financial flows, was the director of programs of the Baku office of the Soros Foundation, Rovshan Bagirov, a person well known in narrow circles.
Ilham Aliyev’s administration also sponsored anti-Russian and anti-Semite rallies in Strasbourg and is financing the well-known Azerbaijani “opposition” website registered under Fatullayev’s name.
Related:
French police tracking “dirty money” in Eynulla Fatullayev’s organization supervised by Azerbaijan
Failed “activitism” of the last dictator, or how Eynulla Fatullayev stole money from Ilham Aliyev