Azeri police search Baku offices of Zerkalo newspaper

Police searched the Baku offices of independent Russian-language daily Zerkalo (Mirror) as part of an Armenian espionage investigation involving Rauf Mirqadirov, the newspaper’s politics correspondent.

Zerkalo editor-in-chief Elcin Sixli said investigators took away documents, as well as the hard drives of his computer.

Miqadirov was deported from Turkey on April 19 and arrested upon arrival at Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport. He was charged with spying for Armenia – an accusation the journalist rejected.

Azerbaijan is technically at war with Armenia despite a ceasefire signed 20 years ago. Backed by Russia, Armenians captured nearly 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts in the early 1990s.

Thousands were killed and about a million Azerbaijani nationals were displaced before the ceasefire was agreed in May 1994. 

The sides have yet to sign a peace agreement despite peace talks mediated by the US, Russia and France. 

ANN.Az