New arrests in the village of Nardaran

Baku / 08.10.18 / Turan: Ten residents of a suburban village of Nardaran, in 30 km from Baku), have been arrested over the past half month, sources in the village reported. Of these, two were held criminally liable; the rest were administratively arrested. According to the same sources, the arrests were made in connection with the Ashura ceremony on September 20, when additional police forces were brought into the village. The security forces restricted access to the Nardran sanctuary, which caused discontent among believers. One of the local elders, Hatem Jalilov, condemned the actions of the security forces.

A few days later, he and another local resident, Fakhraddin Alkhasov, were arrested for illegal possession of weapons. In the criminal chronicle of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for September 25, it is stated that officers of the 42nd branch of the Sabunchu district police department found a Izh-12 hunting rifle with a cut-off barrel and 2 cartridges in the Jalilov garden. In the courtyard of Alkhasov, the "TOZ-8" rifle was also found with a cropped barrel.

Video distributed on social networks, both said they had found a weapon many years ago and did not hand it over to the police because of "negligence". Both face up to 2 years of correctional labor, or up to 3 years in prison. According to relatives, those arrested under pressure were forced to confess.

* In November 2015, a special operation was conducted in Nardaran, as a result of which the leader of the Muslim Unity movement and a group of his supporters were arrested. In the following days, dozens of believers were arrested in Nardaran and throughout the country, who were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Since that time, a state of emergency has actually been maintained in Nardaran, police raids and arrests of local residents are held periodically, mainly on charges of illegal possession of weapons. -06D--