Advocate of PFPA activist arrested in Azerbaijan claims pressure on his client

Dzhabbar Savalan, an activist of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), arrested by the Sumgait City Court, had confessed under police pressure, his advocate Asabali Mustafaev said.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Dzhabbar Savalan was detained on February 5. According to the police, 0.17 grams of opium was confiscated from him. On February 7, the Sumgait City Court of Azerbaijan ruled to arrest him for 2 months.

"He's a pretty young guy, only 20 years old. He got to the police for the first time; and law enforcers took advantage of this and pressed him into confession," Asabali Mustafaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The lawyer believes the charges to be far-fetched and insists that the drugs were planted on his client. Besides, according to Mustafaev, the detention was carried out in violation of procedural norms: they took away Savalan's mobile phone and failed to inform his family that he was kept by the police.

According to the advocate, "Savalan was told at the police that the order to arrest him was downloaded from above."

The PPFA is also confident that Savalan was arrested for political motives. According to Abulfaz Gurbanly, head of the Youth Committee of the PFPA, Savalan joined the party in November 2010 and immediately got actively involved in political activities.

"The authorities have changed their tactics. Arrest of well-known youth activists becomes their headache, because it causes loud international resonance and protests in Azerbaijan. We witnessed it in the case of young bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade, when the authorities were forced by international pressure to early release them. Now they choose young people, so far little-known in the community. Besides, they have specially chosen a young person not from Baku, but from Sumgait, in order to weaken his public defence. But no matter who is arrested by the authorities - a well- or little-known activist - they have one goal in mind: to intimidate youth people and prevent them from going to politics," he added.

According to the head of the PFPA Youth Committee, activists intend to launch a broad public campaign in defence of Savalan. On February 7, a committee in his support was set up, which plans to hold a series of actions, including mass protests.

The MIA refutes the political context of Savalan's case. Orkhan Mansurzade, an employee of the press service of the MIA has explained that "this young man was not known for his political activities."

He also reported that the detainee confessed in his evidences that "he had started using drugs quite recently."