Four young activists are already arrested in Azerbaijan

On March 8 in Azerbaijan, Sakhavat Soltanly, deputy head of the youth organization of the "Musavat" Party, and Reshadat Akhundov, an independent youth activist, were detained and punished with administrative arrest. In the opinion of lawyer Erkin Gadirli, co-founder of the civil movement "Republican Alternative" (REAL), believes that these detentions have to do with the March 11 protest action, advertised on the Facebook; authority officials deny it.

Messrs Soltanly and Akhundov were detained in the presence of their parents. In the evening on March 8 both young men were sentenced to 5 days of administrative arrest each.

"Sakhavat went to the pharmacy with his father. When his father came out of the pharmacy, he saw that certain men in plainclothes forced Sakhavat, who stood near the car, into it and drove nobody knows where. Apparently, they pushed Sakhavat into our car so that my father could not follow them. Only a few hours later we learnt that my brother was at a police station. The location of the car is still unknown," said Gadim Soltanly, Sakhavat's brother.

In her turn, Rufana Mursalova, assistant judge at the Garadag District Court of Baku, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Sakhavat Soltanly was arrested for 5 days "for automobile hooliganism." Besides, he was deprived of his driving license for one year. She refused to explain the essence of his administrative offence.

On March 8, Reshadat Akhundov was busy, together with his parents, searching for a venue for his upcoming wedding party. He was detained near the Baku Entertainment Centre, when his father was inside the building familiarizing him with the prices for organizing the celebration. Reshadat himself with his mother Metanet Akhundova stood in the street. At that moment, according to the mother, policemen came up and detained the guy with no explanations.

Only by the evening of that day it became known that Akhundov was placed under administrative arrest for 5 days for "disobeying the police."

The aforementioned lawyer Erkin Gadirli believes that detentions and arrests of youth activists are associated with the protest action organized through the Facebook and scheduled for March 11. In his opinion, despite the fact that it is not clear what will happen on March 11 and how the virtual event will become a real one, the authorities are taking "preventive measures".

"When the political system is closed, authorities become overly suspicious and start reacting to everything roughly and toughly. Given the large role social networks played in Arab revolutions, the reasons of their anxiety and nervousness become clear," said Gadirli.

According to his story, "arrests of youth activists are carried out with clear violations of the law on trumped up charges and without any evidences of their guilt."

Meanwhile, the information about the transfer of the action from March 11 to March 9 is not confirmed. As it turned out, this ad was posted by another group of Facebook users.

One of the founders of the group, a citizen of Azerbaijan Elnur Medzhidli, who lives in France, reiterated that the action on March 11 will depend on Azerbaijani people themselves. "We've launched a virtual action... We don't organize rallies as opposition parties. That is, if we appointed the time and place of the action and brought people there, we should bear political responsibility for it. We leave the form of protest for the discretion of people. I know that people see all and are able to make the right decision. For people, personal responsibility is important. The people should decide themselves on when, where and what steps should be taken... We don't call anybody to destroy anything; and we don't incite anybody to set anything on fire. The way the people want to act on March 11, it'll be the case. Maybe someone will prefer to stay at home, others will be active in social networks, and some people will raise their voices in protest in the streets," the Internet edition "mediaForum.az" quotes Mr Medzhidli.