Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Ukraine's Independence Day. In their messages, they expressed support for the country and outlined their vision for the future development of relations between Baku and Yerevan with Kyiv.
The Committee of Independent Reporters (China) made a statement on the case of Azerbaijani journalist Polad Aslanov in connection with the performance of four years since his arrest. «For four years now, journalist Polad Aslanov has been serving a heavy prison sentence for politically motivated cases», the statement reads.
The founder and head of news sites was arrested on 12 June 2019 and sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of high treason. Aslanov pleaded not guilty and linked the arrest to his professional activities. According to the People’s Republic of China, the journalist’s arrest was accompanied by psychological pressure on him and his family members to confess.
The Committee condemned the arrest of journalists for their professional activities and considered it to be a repression of press freedom in Azerbaijan.