Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the immediate past chairman of the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, issued the following statement on the new arbitrary charges brought against Mehman Huseynov by the government of Azerbaijan:

“I urgently call on President Aliyev to immediately and unconditionally release Mehman Huseynov. Mehman has spent two years in jail for his work exposing the corruption of the Aliyev regime. The government compounded this injustice two weeks ago by imposing new arbitrary charges on him to extend his time behind bars. President Aliyev must act now to bring an end to this latest shameful episode of the regime’s cruel campaign against free speech.”