In Nakhichevan, customs officers confiscate belongings of journalist-rights defender Elmar Abbasov

In Azerbaijan, the customs officers of the airport of Nakhichevan town confiscated luggage belonging to Elmar Abbasov, the regional correspondent of the "Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety" (IRFS) of Azerbaijan. This occurred during Abbasov's return from Istanbul.

"On October 14, we came back from Turkey. Despite the fact that 150 passengers arrived by this flight, the customs officers detained only me and demanded to complete a customs declaration. I refused. They detained me for three hours, and then they opened my bag and compiled a list of its content. Clothes, which I brought for myself and members of my family, were declared by the customs officers as "goods, delivered with a commercial purpose" and confiscated," Elmar Abbasov said in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to him, passengers arriving in Nakhichevan from Turkey are charged with informal payments amounting to 50 gyapiks (about 60 US cents) per kilogram.

Abbasov claimed that the total weight of his luggage was less than 10 kg, while the airline allows each passenger to have up to 20 kg of luggage at no extra cost.

As far as the contents of bags are concerned, the bags contained new clothes of seven or eight articles for the total amount of 300 manats (about 360 US dollars).

"I reminded them of the rules of the customs legislation, under which no fee shall be charged from the goods of up to 50 kg. However, the customs officers insisted on their opinion. As a result, they gave back to me my old worn-out things, new articles of clothing they had left at their place and demanded payment of customs duty," Abbasov said.

He believes that it was a pre-planned provocation organized against him. "All employees of the airport customs gathered around me. At first, they demanded the cashier's checks for the purchased items. When I showed them, they started to demand from me "a commercial contract and an invoice for payment" in addition," the journalist says.

"According to their "logic", I had to sign a contract with the store for each item. They state that once I bought two shirts for me, the second one has been purchased for resale. In the end, I was told that within two months I should present "commercial contracts and invoices" and pay the customs duty, only then I will be allowed to get my things. This means that they are not going to return my things to me," Abbasov concluded.

The journalist intends to file a complaint to the relevant state authorities and, if his things are not returned to him, then to lodge a lawsuit against the Customs Committee of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR). He believes that the actions of the customs officers were initiated by the regional authorities to exert pressure on him in connection with his human rights and journalist activities.

The Customs Committee of the NAR and the State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan did not comment on the incident.

"The actions of the customs officials with respect to Abbasov are illegal," believes the lawyer Rasul Djafarov, the coordinator of the Club for Human Rights. According to him, in accordance with the regulations, articles of clothes up to 50 kg are not subjects to customs duties.