Azadliq Radio Baku Bureau Sealed Shut

This morning, December 28, police in Azerbaijan forcibly detained Azadliq Radio Baku bureau staff.

Police forced their way into Kamran Mahmudov's home taking him in for questioning.

Police have also detained Chingiz Sulansoy, editor of Azadliq Radio Russian language site.

The raid on RFE/RL Baku bureau was "an adequate response"

Shortly following the raid on RFE/RL Baku Bureau, Nenad Pejic, the editor in chief of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty made the following statement:

"The raiding of our Baku bureau is a flagrant violation of every international commitment and standard Azerbaijan has pledged to uphold. The order comes from the top as retaliation for our reporting and as a thuggish effort to silence RFE/RL. This is not the first time that a regime has sought to silence us, and we will continue our work to support Azeris' basic rights of free access to information and to report the news to audiences that need it."

In response, Arzu Naghiyev, Deputy Director General of Trend Agency said Mr. Pejic "apparently forgotten about all the international norms regarding the status of independence and sovereignty. Probably, he forgot about the moral principles when making such absurd statements that affect the honor and dignity of people".

Naghiyev went to accuse Azadliq Radio of propaganda generating negative public opinion. This is why says Naghiyev "an adequate response" was given, hinting similar acts would follow.

Azerbaijani MP says pressure on Azerbaijan is useless

Bakhtiyar Sadigov, an MP from the ruling party said on Saturday, December 27 Azerbaijan was a country pursuing an independent policy and that any outside attempts to pressure the country in changing its policy are "useless".

"Azerbaijan is not obliged to explain its actions to anyone. The state and national interets require, if neccessary, significant measures and investigation and even someone's imprisonment taking into account the situation".