On February 28, the European Court of Human Rights fully satisfied the request of the Social Justice Center and prohibited Georgia from extraditing journalist Afgan Sadigov to Azerbaijan until a final decision on his case is made. This was reported by the director of the organization, Tamta Mikeladze.
According to her, after learning about the ECHR decision, the prisoner “found hope again and stopped his hunger strike,” which lasted 161 days. Mikeladze also stated that the Social Justice Center will appeal to the court and demand the journalist’s release from custody. She noted that “when extradition is not permitted, keeping him in custody until trial makes no legal sense.”
The founder and editor-in-chief of the opposition Azerbaijani channel Azel TV, Afgan Sadigov, was arrested in Tbilisi on August 3 on the basis of a fabricated Interpol search at the request of Baku. In May 2020, he was sentenced in Azerbaijan to seven years in prison on extortion charges. He was later pardoned. Human rights activists called the criminal case a fabrication.
