In Azerbaijan, Oktai Gyulalyev, activist of "Kura" office, accused of inciting to riots

In Azerbaijan, Oktai Gyulalyev, the coordinator of the headquarters of the civil organization "Kura", whose term of administrative arrest had completed, was charged of a crime. In particular, the civil organization activist is charged of "inciting to riots". The court decision left him under arrest again.

April 19 was the deadline for administrative arrest of Oktai Gyulalyev and the Sabirabad District Prosecutor's Office filed a charge against him under Article 220.2 (active inciting to disobedience to legitimate demands of a representative of power and to riots and to violence against citizens) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

On the same day, the Sabirabad District Court chose in regard to Oktai Gyulalyev a pre-trial restriction in the form of 2-month arrest, and after that he was brought to Baku to SIZO (pre-trial prison) in the village of Kyurdakhany. In case, if his guilt is proven, Oktai Gyulalyev will face a sentence of up to three years of imprisonment, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by the headquarters of the civil organization "Kura".

Intigam Aliev, the head of the Legal Education Society (LES), treats the Oktai Gyulalyev's arrest as unreasonable. Intigam Aliev has stressed that the activist just held a meeting in the village of Minbashi with a group of local residents and that he did not call on anybody to anything. At the same time, Intigam Aliev drew attention to the fact that the residents of the village of Minbashi held their protest actions yet on April 3-4, i.e., prior to the arrival of Oktai Gyulalyev in the village.

The human rights activist has also noted that in the course of his administrative arrest, Oktai Gyulalyev was beaten at the district police station and that during his administrative arrest, the activist's rights were grossly violated the police censored his letters to state agencies.

The headquarters of the civil organization "Kura" strongly condemned the Oktai Gyulalyev's arrest and stated that the criminal case had been fabricated with the aim of preventing public control over the expenditure of public funds, allocated to eliminate consequences of flood, which occurred in 2012.

The Sabirabad District Prosecutor's Office confirmed the Oktai Gyulalyev's arrest; however, the officials refused to comment on the situation.