By Tass
MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Consular access has been granted to 13 Russian nationals detained in Azerbaijan, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS.
“Access to 13 Russian citizens detained in Azerbaijan for consular employees has been granted,” she said.
On June 28, the Russian Investigative Committee’s department in the Sverdlovsk Region said that local law enforcement agencies had dismantled an ethnic criminal group involved in murders in Yekaterinburg between 2001 and 2011. Eight suspects were taken into custody as part of the investigation into the case.
According to preliminary data, one of the suspects died from heart failure. The cause of death of the second is being established. The bodies were transported from Yekaterinburg to Baku and, after a forensic examination, were buried in Azerbaijan.
Baku lodged a protest against the actions of Russian law enforcement officers and subsequently canceled cultural and other events involving Russian participation. Later, as part of a media crackdown, Russian journalists Igor Kartavykh and Yevgeny Belousov, along with eight other Russian citizens, were detained and placed in custody for four months in the Azerbaijani capital.
The two countries exchanged notes of protest over each other’s actions, and diplomats were summoned by their foreign ministries.