Six Azerbaijani oppositionists left under arrest

The Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) has upheld the decision to arrest six activists of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) detained before a rally held on March 10 against the early presidential election.

Even before the rally, on March 7, six activists of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) were subjected to administrative arrests, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by advocate Asabali Mustafaev.

All the activists were found guilty of violating Article 535.1 (disobeying the lawful demands of the police) of the Code of Administrative Offenses, reported advocate Asabali Mustafaev. "In fact, they came to the police on their own when summoned. At first, the activists were summoned on March 4-5. According to them, they were warned about the inadmissibility of participating in the rally scheduled for March 10. On March 6-7, they were summoned again. However, that time they were not released and handed over to the court, and on March 7, the regional courts sentenced them to 15-20 days of arrests," said Asabali Mustafaev.

The advocate has noted that the protocols drawn up against the activists are very similar. "The oppositionists were allegedly loudly quarrelling with someone on the mobile phones and when the policemen called them to order, they allegedly answered with bad words and refused to obey," Asabali Mustafaev reported the contents of the protocols.

According to him, on March 16, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) considered the appeals filed by the defence against the arrests of six activists, but left them in custody.

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