PFPA activist Orkhan Salimzade arrested

Orkhan Salimzade, an activist of the youth committee of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), was arrested for 30 days on charges of disobeying the police. The party treats the accusation as far-fetched, and the reason for the arrest – as political.

In the evening on August 18, Orkhan Salimzade called his wife from work saying that he would be home in an hour; and after that he disappeared, and connection with him was lost, Ilham Gusein, a member of the PFPA Presidium, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. Only in the evening on August 19, it turned out that Orkhan Salimzade was arrested for 30 days, Mr Gusein has added.

According to his story, the court found Salimzade guilty under Article 535.1 (disobeying a policeman's legal demands) of the Administrative Code of Azerbaijan. "We don't know yet what was written in the police protocol and the court judgement. Most likely, Orkhan's arrest has to do with his participation in the demonstration in support of the army.

According to Ilham Gusein, Orkhan did not participate in any illegal actions. "He was not in the group of people who entered the parliament building. The authorities are simply using these events to discredit the PFPA, accusing it of attempting to commit a putsch, and staged a hunt for party members. After the action, 18 PFPA members were prosecuted and 16 more arrested in the administrative order. Orkhan became the seventeenth arrested in this order," Mr Gusein has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 20, 2020 at 09:25 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.