NCDF condemns new wave of 'politically motivated' arrests

Baku/05.23.22/Turan: The National Council of Democratic Forces issued a statement in connection with "a new wave of politically motivated arrests and police violence" in Azerbaijan.

The document refers, in particular, to the mass detentions of activists during a May 14 demonstration in Baku in protest against the recent growing threats and violence against some public and political figures and journalists.
In addition, on May 21, it became known about the re-arrest on charges of drug trafficking of blogger and former political prisoner Rashad Ramazanov.
On May 20, a member of the Muslim Unity movement, Razi Gumbatov, was sentenced to six years in prison on the same charge.

During the trial of Razi Gumbatov, the police detained his associates.

Three of them - Agali Yahyaev, Imran Mammadli and Elgiz Mammadov - were sentenced to 30 days of administrative arrest. Two more activists - Suleyman Alekperov and Mail Karimli were tortured by the police. They were released only after they “sworn” in front of video cameras not to go to court again.

Activist Ziya Ibrahimli, deported from Germany, was detained at the Baku airport on May 19. Ibrahimli is the sixth immigrant activist arrested in Azerbaijan on various trumped-up charges after being deported from Germany.
On May 17, PFPA activist Jeyhun Rzayev was detained by police in Mingachevir for several hours for holding a solo protest.

PFPA activist Orkhan Jahangirov, who participated in the rally on May 14, faced the threat of arrest. The house in which he lives is taken under police surveillance and he is forced to hide at a different address.

There is also a threat of a new sentence against the head of the Citizens and Development Party, Ali Aliyev, who is serving a 6-month prison sentence. Against him filed a new lawsuit by a former functionary of the ruling party.
NCDF called
 the international community to demand more persistently from the Azerbaijani authorities an end to repressions.—06B-