Azeri MP ‘secretly records’ Baku meeting of US Senate staffers

Ceyhun Osmanli, a pro-government member of Azerbaijan’s parliament, has said he secretly recorded a conversation between two US Senate staffers and RFE/RL journalist Khadija Ismayilova and submitted the recording to the Prosecutor-General’s Office.

Osmanli said he used his mobile phone to record the conversation at a Baku restaurant earlier this month.

Ismayilova allegedly passed along a list of Azeri opposition activists working for the government.

“High treason cannot be forgiven,” Osmanli wrote on his Facebook page.

Ismayilova, who anchors a current affairs program on Azeri service of RFE/RL, rejected the allegations.

The US embassy in Baku also dismissed the espionage claims as “absurd”. It said US Senate staffers routinely visit Azerbaijan to meet local officials and civil society representatives to “better inform our government’s legislative efforts regarding Azerbaijan and the rest of the region”.  

ANN.Az