11:32, 8 May 2019

In Baku, law enforcers detain protesters

On May 7, Azerbaijani policemen stopped a protest action organized by relatives of those arrested within the "Ganja case" and detained several protesters and journalists.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 30, 2019, the Centre for the Protection of Political Prisoners held a discussion of the "Ganja case" in the office of the "Musavat" Party, at which relatives of the arrested persons reported that the detainees had been tortured. On April 22, family members of arrested activists held a rally in Ganja in their support and demanded to release them.

On July 3, 2018, there was an assassination attempt on Elmar Veliev, the head of the Ganja administration. Yunis Safarov, a 35-year-old native of Ganja, was detained. On July 10, in Ganja, about 200 people gathered outside the administration building and demanded to investigate the actions of Elmar Veliev. The police dispersed the rally. Two police officers were killed in clashes with the protesters.

On May 7, relatives of family members of the activists, arrested in connection with the July 2018 events in Ganja, tried to hold a protest action in Baku in front of the administration of the President of Azerbaijan. The protesters were holding photos of the head of the investigative group dealing with the "Ganja case" and other law enforcers, demanding to punish them for torturing those arrested, the "Turan" News Agency has reported.

The protest rally was dispersed by law enforcers, several protesters and journalists were detained, the agency reports citing the human rights defender Ogtai Gyulyalyev.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 8, 2019 at 07:15 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.