“As far as we know, the correspondent is charged with the offence of carrying narcotics, which does not appear to be true,” Mehmanparast said during a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.
An Azeri court affiliated to the country’s ministry of national security has handed down a two-year jail sentence to Anar Bayramli, a member of the IRIB local staff who was arrested in mid-February on false charges.
On February 18, Azerbaijan's police and plainclothes forces arrested Bayramli at his house on charges of “carrying illicit drugs,” which had been put in his pocket by the local police. This comes as the local police claim to have arrested him on the street. He has been kept in jail since then.
Bayramli, who has been recognized by the international bodies including the Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, called his trial a sham and added that the court was not independent, but complying with orders issued by Azeri executive officials.
A great number of international institutes and organizations including Reporters without Borders, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Baku’s Institute for Security and Freedom of Journalists, Journalists Rights Institute also in Baku, as well as the Tehran-based Association of Muslim Journalists have emphasized that Bayramli has been arrested due to his professional activities and have called for his release.
Many Azeri personalities, scholars and party leaders have also said Bayramli’s incarceration proves the absence of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, urging the Azeri government to exercise more tolerance toward journalists and end their repression.
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Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has expressed regret over the sentencing of an Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) correspondent in an Azeri court to two years in jail.
News ID 181909
