Human Rights Watch issued a statement concerning banning a Human Rights Watch researcher from entering Azerbaijan.

The senior South Caucasus researcher, Giorgi Gogia, was planning to attend the trials of two Azerbaijani human rights defenders who were arrested on bogus charges and have been behind bars awaiting trial.

When Gogia arrived at Heydar Aliyev International Airport, authorities refused to allow him into the country, but would not provide an explanation. Immigration officials took his passport, and required him to remain in the passport hall. Thirty-one hours later they handed his passport to the flight crew aboard the plane Gogia took back to Tbilisi. No explanation was provided.

“Barring Giorgi Gogia from attending the trial hearings shows just how far Azerbaijan’s authorities have taken their crackdown on human rights,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “They’ve ruthlessly silenced many critical voices inside the country, and now they don’t want to let anyone in to bear witness to what they are doing.”

It is the first time that Azerbaijani authorities have denied Human Rights Watch staff members entry to the country.

For years the Azerbaijani government has had a poor human rights record, but in the past year a new crackdown has led to the arrest of the country’s human rights leaders and the forced shuttering of many independent groups.

Human Rights Watch said other governments and international organizations should demand an end to the crackdown and the immediate and unconditional release of wrongfully imprisoned human rights defenders and journalists.