Irina Voloshina, a correspondent with the French television channel I-TeLe, was deported from Azerbaijan yesterday. 

Voloshina, who works for the Moscow bureau of the channel, was detained upon arrival at Baku airport at 5 a.m. and was sent back on a Moscow plane five hours later. She was going to cover the brief detention of Azerbaijan’s leading human rights advocate Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif Yunus, by police earlier this week.

Leyla Yunus was released after being questioned by the Prosecutor-General’s Office in connection with an Armenian espionage investigation launched against Rauf Mirqadirov, politics correspondent with Azerbaijan’s Zerkalo newspaper.

Elman Abdullayev, a spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, said Voloshina had not applied to the ministry for press accreditation. 

“Every foreign journalist is required to get press accreditation from the Foreign Ministry before doing their job in our country,” Abdullayev said.

ANN.Az