Baku police disperse opposition protest

About 150 supporters of the opposition tried to hold a protest action against violations of the freedom of assembly in front of the Baku Mayoralty. The police squeezed the protesters away from the building and forced them to disperse.

The protesters gathered in the Sabir Mini-Park and marched for about 200 meters along the central street of Baku Istiglaliyyet (Independence), chanting the slogans: "Resign!", "Freedom!" and "Freedom of prisoners of conscience!"

However, when the oppositionists came almost to the Mayoralty, to the lane that separates the Mayoralty from the Azerbaijani State Economic University, the police blocked the way. Despite the counteraction of law enforcers, the protesters continued chanting their slogans. But the police used force to squeeze the protesters back to the Sabir, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Further confrontation was avoided after Tofig Yagublu, the deputy head of the "Musavat" Party, stating that the action "was a success", urged the oppositionists to disperse. In the course of the action, according to oppositionists, several persons were detained. But the exact number of detainees was not disclosed.

However, Kamal Velishev, Deputy Head of the Police of the Sabail District, has refuted the information about the detainees. "No one was detained," he said. He explained the dispersal by the fact that the action was not coordinated with the city authorities.