Azerbaijani authorities have dropped new charges recently leveled against jailed anticorruption blogger Mehman Huseynov.
Calls for Huseynov’s release had intensified inside and outside Azerbaijan since he was targeted with a new charge late last month, just weeks before his expected release from prison.
He was accused of “resisting a representative of the authorities with the use of violence dangerous to the representative’s health and life.”
The blogger’s lawyer said Huseynov could face up to seven years in prison if convicted of the new charge, which has triggered calls by Azerbaijani and international watchdog groups, members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and The Washington Post’s editorial board for Huseynov’s release.