Musavat - Fight against Fraud to Continue

Baku / 17.02.20 / Turan: The Musavat party strongly condemns the police crackdown on the February 16 protest rally near the CEC building against the rigging of parliamentary elections.

The organizers of the rally, including the chairman of the Musavat party Arif Hajili, the head of the Real party Ilgar Mammadov and the head of the D18 organization Ruslan Izzatli were detained before the rally began. The detentions were carried out in violation of the law, and plainclothes police officers did not introduce themselves.

In the morning, all the way to the CEC building was blocked by the police. During the protest, about 100 people were detained. Seventy-four of them were identified.

Among the detainees are dozens of candidates for deputies, most of whom are members of Musavat, observers and representatives of election commissions with an advisory vote.

At the same time, the detainees were taken out in buses and dropped off tens and hundreds of kilometers from Baku - in Hajikabul, Gobustan, Alat and even Yevlakh.

The Musavat party believes that the police operation has become a gross violation of fundamental human rights in Azerbaijan, including freedom of assembly. She called on the authorities to stop the repression and to punish those who participated in illegal actions.

The Musavat party stated that the fight against fraud in the elections will continue and called on the democratic forces to jointly develop a plan of action against fraud, and local and international community to support this fight. —06D-