Azerbaijani activist Samira Agaeva states being shadowed

On February 24, unidentified persons were following Samira Agaeva, the deputy chair of the D18 movement, when she was returning home. She managed to escape pursuers and believes that they tried to intimidate her.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Agaeva is engaged in legal support of Azerbaijani citizens at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and takes part in projects related to the monitoring of trials held in the country. She is also compiling lists of Azerbaijani political prisoners.

Agaeva reported about the incident in the Facebook. According to her story, she noticed shadowing late in the evening, when she got off the bus on her way home in Baku.

"I noticed a Jeep car with two men inside. The car followed me. When I came into the yard, the car got there after me. I quickened my pace. When I was coming up to the doorway, the car accelerated sharply, but I managed to run into the doorway," Samira Agaeva has written.

In her opinion, the incident could be caused by any sphere of her activities: "human rights defence, political activism, legal protection of citizens' rights in courts, or her posts in the Facebook.”

She has not decided yet whether to go to the police, because she failed to remember the car’s license number, and her yard is not equipped with CCTV cameras.

Samira has added that such incidents involving members of civil society are never investigated to the end in Azerbaijan.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.