Opposition reports about detention of activists before rally in Baku

In Baku, law enforcers conducted mass detentions of activists, including organizers of a rally scheduled for October 19, the opposition reports. The police threatened with sanctions for holding an unsanctioned rally.

On October 17, the police summoned four activists from the rally organizing committee, including Ibragim Ibragimli, a member of the coordinating centre of the opposition National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), Tofig Yagublu, a member of the board of the "Musavat" Party, Eldaniz Guliev, the chairman of the Council of Intellectuals of Azerbaijan, and Vakhid Magerramli, the chairman of the agrarian commission of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA). The police issued a warning to activists, Tofig Yagublu told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"In turn, we stated that freedom of assembly is guaranteed by the Constitution," Tofig Yagublu emphasized.

Gezyal Bairamly, the deputy chair of the PFPA, also reported about mass detentions and arrests of activists over the past two to three days.

In his turn, Jamil Gasanli, the head of the NCDF, reported that PFPA's activists Aliag Mamedov and Sagif Gurbanov were arrested for 30 days. Activists Nidjat Nizamov and Yalchin Abdullaev were arrested for 15 days.

Jamil Gasanli regarded the mass arrests as "blatant arbitrariness, the suppression of fundamental freedoms."

Khalid Agaliev, a lawyer at the Media Rights Institute, believes that, according to the decisions pronounced by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), a punishment in the form of arrest cannot be applied for holding and participating in a peaceful action, even if it is not sanctioned by the authorities.