Director of Turan Agency Detained in Baku
Azerbaijan's independent Turan News Agency says its director has been detained by authorities as a suspect in a tax-evasion and abuse-of-power investigation, rferl.org reports.
The move on August 24 comes after the director, Mehman Aliyev, on August 18 told RFE/RL that the authorities had frozen all of the outlet's bank accounts amid a criminal probe the news agency said was politically motivated.
International rights groups decried what they called "trumped-up charges" against Turan and said they are part of a broader crackdown on independent media and critical voices in Azerbaijan.
The news outlet, which was established in 1990, publishes reports in Azerbaijani, English, and Russian and cooperates with leading international news agencies.
Turan quoted Aliyev's lawyer, Fuad Agayev, as saying the director voluntarily went to the Tax Ministry's Department of Tax Crimes office for questioning before he was detained and taken to the Yasamal district police department.
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