Lawyer Asabali Mustafayev has met with Ruslan Garayev, chairman of Sumgayit city Youth Committee of Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP) sentenced to administrative arrest, the lawyer himself has reported. Ruslan Garayev was detained on July 20, but his family was not informed about his place of detention. On July 22, Sumgayit Regional Court sentenced him to 20-day administrative detention. Ruslan Garayev took a selfie holding a can of energy drink in front of late President Heydar Aliyev’s statue in Sumgayit. It is assumed that the youth activist was arrested for this photo.
According to the lawyer, Ruslan Garayev was charged under Articles 510 (minor hooliganism) and 535 (resistance to police) of Administrative Offences Code. “According to the charges, Ruslan Garayev was shouting profanities in a loud voice. The police called on him to not violate public order, but he ignored the police and went on cursing. I had waited in front of Sumgayit city Police Department for hours in the past three days, but was not granted a meeting. I suspected that he was tortured, but at our today’s meeting, Ruslan Garayev said he had not been tortured. But he might be saying so because he was under police supervision,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer added that Ruslan Garayev was held in the Temporary Detention Facility under Sumgayit City Police Department.