Sarah Ludford MEP welcomes release of British citizen held in Azerbaijan

12.40.22pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 23rd Jun 2005

London MEP and peer Baroness Sarah Ludford, European justice spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, has welcomed the release of British citizen Mrs Almas Guliyeva from detention in Azerbaijan after wrongful accusations of having a pistol in her luggage. Mrs Guliyeva is arriving home in Cricklewood, Northwest London this morning.

Baroness Ludford said: "I acknowledge the work that the Foreign Office in London and Baku and also the Azerbaijan ambassador in London have done to resolve this situation, although the accusation and detention were completely unjustified"

"While I'm relieved that Almas Guliyeva can now return home to her husband and two young sons in London, it is regrettable that they have had to suffer this nightmare for 3 weeks."

Mrs Guliyeva was arrested on 3rd June before boarding a flight to London from Baku, when officials claimed to have found a pistol in her suitcase. She not only denied ownership of the pistol but was adamant that the pistol was not there when she packed. Following the stress of her arrest, Mrs Guliyeva was taken seriously ill and needed hospital treatment in intensive care.

Almas Guliyeva is a close family member of Rasul Guliyev, the chairman of the leading opposition party in Azerbaijan. She was granted refugee status in the UK in the 1990s and now has British citizenship. Parliamentary elections take place in a few months, and street demonstrations for democracy and human rights were seen in Baku last weekend.

In lobbying for Mrs Guliyeva's prompt release, Baroness Ludford was in contact with the Foreign Office and the UK Embassy in Azerbaijan as well as the Azerbaijani Ambassadors in London and Brussels, working closely with Sabine Zanker, senior lawyer at Fair Trials Abroad, of which she is patron. She added:

"This kind of case shows the immense value of Fair Trials Abroad, the dedicated work of whose staff on behalf of not only British but other EU citizens deserves even wider recognition and support than the welcome recent OBE for director Stephen Jakobi."