Azerbaijan: 32 believers face criminal charges for confronting police

32 detainees face criminal charges in connection with the unsanctioned protest action of believers, which was held on October 5 in Baku in front of the Ministry of Education and which grew into clashes between the protesters and the police. The courts pronounced their arrests as pre-trial restriction measures. This was reported on October 8 by Eldar Sultanov, Press Officer of the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported that on October 5, in the capital of Azerbaijan, about 200 believers held the action to protest against the ban on hijabs at schools. According to the Baku Prosecutor's Office and the Baku Police, the participants of the protest action rendered resistance to law enforcement officers "by using prepared wooden sticks and batons with sharp nails." As a result, 20 police officers got injuries of varying degree. On the fact of the unsanctioned action, the criminal case was instituted under Article 315.2 (resistance to or use of force against a power representative) and Article 233 (organization of actions aimed at violation of public order or participation in those actions) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

According to Eldar Sultanov, apart from 32 participants of the protest action, against whom criminal proceedings were initiated, 14 more detainees were arrested in the administrative order. However, the Press Officer of the General Prosecutor's Office did not specify the terms of their arrest. According to the legislation of Azerbaijan, the maximum term of administrative penalty is a 15-day arrest. 28 more detainees were released after receiving warnings.

Till present, the question of the organizers of the protest action is clear, since none of the religious and political organizations have taken responsibility for the protest action.

The analytical materials of the media give different assessment and interpretation of the events of October 5.

The agency "APA" draws the readers' attention to the fact that the organizers have managed to keep secret till the end the time and place of the action and arrived at the place with prepared wooden batons and sticks. Besides, the agency emphasizes non-participation of women in the action and "special highlighting" of Islamic website of the fact that the protestors used force against the police.

"All that points to the fact that holding the conducted action had been planned in advance to create confrontation to the police and to show force," the agency reports.

The agency notes that "the nature of the protest action (demands, symbols, and slogans) suggests that the action could be ordered by Iran."

At the same time, the agency draws the readers' attention to the fact that the protest action was dated not to September 15, when the school year began, and to October 5 and coincided with the holding of the II Baku International Humanitarian Forum in the capital of Azerbaijan. According to the author, the clashes with the police could be instigated to neutralize the value of "positive assessments of atmosphere of tolerance and respect for religious values in Azerbaijan", voiced at the forum.

However, the same article does not exclude another version, in particularly, organization of provocation by the third force, not interested in the tendency of normalization of the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations, which was developing last weeks.

However, at the same time, the analytical article of the agency "APA" indicates that the protest action has been a kind of message, stating that Islamists in Azerbaijan are powerful force and that they can even go for the bloodshed.

In its turn, the news agency "Turan" notes in its analytical article that an unexpected action of believers was the result of the authorities' policy to suppress political activity in the country, resulting in protest opinions and forces actually went into the underground.

According to analysts of the news agency "Turan", the protest action of believers and violent clashes with the police have given an exit to the protest energy, which had been suppressed in recent years.

Arastuna Orudjlu, the leader of the Research Centre "East-West", believes that the confrontation between the believers and the police could be provoked by the authorities, an, in particular, specific groups within the authorities. According to the researcher, the police always have operational information about the upcoming actions, and, to prevent them, police officers even conduct preventive detentions and arrests. Besides, generally, police forces do not allow participants of protest actions to gather at the designated place of the protest action even in small groups and disperse them. And, according to the expert, at that time, the police did not prevent gathering of the participants of the protest actions.

As far as the motives of the alleged provocation are concerned, Arastuna Orudjlu believes that it could be aimed at diverting public attention from the scandal about the video, which recorded the discussion of Gyular Akhmedova, the representative of the ruling party, of the amount of bribe to elect Elshad Abdullaev, Rector of the private university, an MP. Arastuna Orudjlu believes that the video record mentions the names of several top-ranking officials, and such resonant protest action could be instigated to divert public attention from the scandalous video record.