British activist barred from Azerbaijan ahead Of Euro Games

Emma Hughes, a campaigner with the British rights group Platform London, told RFE/RL that she was detained while going through passport control at Baku’s Heidar Aliyev International Airport, where officials told her she had been placed on a blacklist.

 

"Since then they’ve been holding me in the terminal,” said Hughes, who frequently criticizes human rights in Azerbaijan as well as British energy giant BP’s business dealings with the government of President Ilham Aliyev.

She told RFE/RL that immigration officials informed her she may have to wait until June 11 to be put on a plane out of Baku.

 

Some 6,000 athletes from 50 countries are set to compete in the event, a European-only, quasi-version of the Olympic Games that kicks off in Baku on June 12 and ends on June 28.

Hughes told RFE/RL she was surprised to have been prevented from entering Azerbaijan because the event’s organizers had granted her press accreditation and purchased tickets to the event.

 

"I was certainly expected to get in, especially because they'd given me my accreditation and sold me tickets," she said.

 

Hughes said she planned to monitor human rights practices in Azerbaijan during her trip, including the case of Rasul Cafarov (say Jafarov), an activist who was arrested in August after announcing plans for a campaign to draw attention to the rights situation ahead of the European Games.

 

Cafarov was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in April after a trial on financial crimes charges he says were politically motivated.