The Azerbaijani authorities have come to their senses with surprising speed and announced that Mehman Aliyev, the founder of Turan news agency of Azerbaijan who was taken into custody on August 28, and under the pretext of having tax issues, is innocent.

The Baku City Local Income Department of the Ministry of Taxes of Azerbaijan canceled the additional taxes accrued by it to the news agency from 2014 to 2016.

Along with fines, these additional taxes amounted to 37,000 manats (22,000 US dollars).

The department took this decision on the basis of the desk audit results, and notified Turan news agency of this by an official letter.

It was the decision to charge additional taxes between 2014 and 2016 on August 7, 2017, which was used by the Department for Preliminary Investigation of Tax Crimes to start a criminal case against Turan on the same day.

And on August 16 the news agency’s office was searched, and the accounting documents and electronic media related to its financial activities were seized.

Thus, with the cancelation of the decision to charge additional taxes from 2014 to 2016, the criminal case against Turan news agency has been deprived of its legal basis, reported Turan.

To note, Mehman Aliyev’s arrest had brought forth criticism from international organizations.