Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the unacceptable escalation in harassment of the media by the authorities in Nakhchivan, especially last week’s expulsion of RFE/RL reporter Yafez Hasanov.

Hasanov was abducted on 31 August by three unidentified men in plain-clothes using the kind of car that government security officials normally drive. They drove him to the Iranian border and told him to return to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku via Iran. If he set foot in Nakhchivan during the next month, “it will cost you,” they told him.

“After death threats and intimidation, Nakhchivan’s authorities are displaying exceptional inventiveness in expanding their already complete repressive arsenal against the media.  How far will they have to go before the central government and the international community decide to do something to half this escalation,” the organization said in a statement.

Hasanov had gone to the Julfa district of Nakhchivan to investigate Turac Zeynaolv’s death in detention, a story that the local authorities are trying at all costs to suppress because it exposes the cruelty of the methods they use.

Hasanov’s abductors told him not to meddle, took his passport and returned it with an exit stamp when they reached the border, says the statement available on organization’s website.