After his detention at Boryspil airport by Ukrainian authorities, Azerbaijani journalist Fikret Huseynli now faces extradition back to Baku. Image still via Front Line / YouTube. Some rights reserved.
You’d think that escaping a state where one has been persecuted is enough to start a new life. But this isn’t the case for Azerbaijanis who have found themselves on the government’s radar for criticising the regime — even from abroad.
On 14 October, Fikret Huseynli, an Azerbaijani journalist and Dutch citizen, was detained by Ukrainian border police at Kyiv Boryspil airport on an Interpol red notice. Huseynli was baffled by the border police’s desire to detain him, and it looked at first that the case would be resolved quickly. But Huseynli remains in Ukraine after a local court decided to hold him in custody for a further 18 days, pending examination of his appeal.
