Activist of the Party of People’s Front of Azerbaijan Rovshan Safarov was arrested for 30 days on charges of disobeying the police. The PPFA press service told Turan that Safarov disappeared on January 22, and 36 hours later it turned out that he was arrested administratively for disobeying the police (Article 535.1) of the Code of Administrative Offences.
The PPFA linked Safarov’s arrest to his participation in the Shehid Alley procession on 20 January. “On that day, the police did not allow the PPFA members to enter Shehid Alley. Rovshan Safarov and Anar Huseynov expressed their indignation at the police action.
Note that Anar Huseynov was arrested for 30 days on the same day, while Safarov was arrested two days later,” the PPFA said, calling the activists’ arrests politically motivated.
It ought to be noted that Rovshan Safarov himself is the son of a martyr – his father Yaver Safarov died in 1994 in the battle for Horadiz.
In addition to the activists of this Party, several members of the “Muslim Unity Movement” were also brought to administrative responsibility for their participation in the march on Shehid Alley.
The organisation said that about 10 of its activists had been detained after the January 20 march. Most of them were released after being held in police stations for several hours, and four members – Hasan Abbaszadeh, Nizami Ahmed, Imran Mammadli and Tarlan Seyidov were arrested for 30 days. It was not possible to obtain comments from the Interior Ministry.