Rights groups, Western governments urge Azerbaijan to release human rights defender

Baku, Azerbaijan / Washington —  International rights organizations and Western governments are calling on the Azerbaijani government to release prominent human rights defender Rufat Safarov. “The arrest of Rufat Safarov on trumped-up fraud and hooliganism charges is another glaring example of the Azerbaijani authorities’ relentless efforts to silence dissenting voices in the country,” Amnesty International said in a Wednesday statement. Safarov, a former prosecutor who heads the Defense Line human rights organization, was detained Tuesday and charged with fraud and hooliganism. He has been put on four months of pretrial detention. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs told VOA that Safarov’s

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