Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend K.Zarbaliyeva / Employees and the Editor-in-Chief of the Baku-based newspaper Zerkalo were interrogated at the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry. Arif Babayev, the spokesman for the Ministry told Trend on 31 August that the authors were invited to the Ministry to provide testimonies in order to clarify some strong allegations mentioned in an article published on 30 August.
Babayev said that the articles collected have been sent to the Prosecutor General's office.
An article entitled 'September 11 in the Scale of Baku', published in Zerkalo, proposed a possible blast at the building in Murtuza Mukhtarov St. as a result of Russian terrorists' attacks. "On the eve of the incident an unknown person of Slavic appearance filmed the building," the article reported. Vasiliy Istratov, the Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, held a news conference denying these reports. The article has caused a disagreement in Russia.
On 30 August, Elchin Shikhli, the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper and Ibrahim Bayandur, Rauf Mirgadirov, and Rashad Rustamov, authors of the article, were invited to the National Security Ministry. After a two-hour interrogation the men were released.
Babayev said that on the day of the collapse, Eldar Mahmudov, the Azerbaijani Security Minister, was at the scene of the incident, and a special expert group held a relevant investigation on-site. "Versions of the story reporting a terrorist attack or explosion are excluded. Any talks in this respect are groundless," Mahmudov said.
The National Security Ministry recommends the media not to publish or air false reports.