Fourteen persons arrested in Azerbaijan for publications in social networks

Social networks users are repressed in Azerbaijan for publications on various mutually unrelated topics.

Over the past few days, 14 people were arrested for 10 to 30 days for their comments on the power outages in Baku and on the attempt on the Ganja Mayor. The prosecutor's office has also demanded to close four websites.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) asserts that those arrested had made "illegal appeals" in their posts. Criminal cases have been opened against three other persons.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at night on July 3, after an accident at a power station, Baku and other Azerbaijani regions had power (electricity) outages. The metro stopped in Baku' and 19 people turned to doctors.

Also on July 3, Elmar Veliev, the Mayor of the city of Ganja, and his bodyguard, were injured in an armed attack. Law enforcers treated the attack as a terror act.

The persecutions of network users have to do with the authorities' attempt to bring down the protest moods in social networks, Emin Guseinov, the Executive Director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), believes.