Court of Appeal Leaves PFPA Activists under Arrest

Baku / 17.03.18 / Turan: On March 16 the Baku Court of Appeal dismissed complaints about administrative arrests of six members of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) for a period of 15 to 20 days. They were arrested on the eve of the opposition rally in Baku on March 10.

Let's remind that a member of the party's Board Aghil Maharramli, a member of the Khatai branch Tahir Agayev, the deputy chairman of the Binagadi department Yalchin Abdullayev and an activist of the same department Hikmet Aliyev were arrested for 15 days. The deputy head of the Khatai branch Faig Nagiyev and an activist of the Binagadi branch Bashir Tariverdiev were sentenced to 20 days under arrest.

As the lawyer Asabali Mustafayev told Turan, all those arrested were found guilty of committing an administrative offense - "not subordinating the police." In fact, according to the lawyer, they themselves went to the police on a call, despite the absence of an official summon.

According to the lawyer, the activists were first summoned to the police on March 4-5. Then they called again on March 6-7, and were arrested by the court decisions. Therefore, there can be no question of any non-submission to the police.

The Court of Appeal refused to grant the defense's motion to review the records from the video surveillance cameras of the police stations.

The lawyer said complaints will be lodged with the European Court of Human Rights. -06D--