10 participants of youth action in Baku subjected to administrative punishment

About a hundred young people were detained today in Baku for an attempt to hold an action of commemoration of the victims of the April 30, 2009 mass massacre in the Azeri State Oil Academy (ASOA). Late at night most detainees were released. But 10 persons were sent to Nasimin district court for taking them to administrative punishment.

Two of them, Akhad Mamedov, deputy chairman of the youth organization of the "Musavat" party, and Dzhamil Gadzhiyev, head of the youth organization of the Azeri Democratic Party, have been sentenced to 10 days of arrest, all others imposed administrative fines and released.

For reference, on April 30, 2009, Farda Gadirov, resident of Georgia, on entering the building of Baku oil academy, opened fire from his pistol. Having killed 12 people and wounded 13 more, Gadirov shot himseld.   

Although the action was scheduled for 13.00, already in the morning police units and plain-clothed persons were concentrating around the ASOA and in the adjoining streets and squares, and in front of metro stations "28 May" and "Sakhil". The police units and plain-clothed persons stopped everyone who approached the academy with flowers and other "suspicious persons" and forced them to the side opposite to the second ASOA builsing.

Approximately at 11.00 the police units and plain-clothed persons started detaining young people arriving in groups. Posters and flowers were confiscated and the persons were forced into the buses specially taken off the city bus routes.

However, such measures failed to stop the youth. Young people gathered into small groups and chanted slogans against terror. This made police officers nervous because they could not guess where from the next group of participants might appear - while they were detaining one group, another group was formed and started chanting slogans and raise posters.

"We are not frightened by arrests and pressure. Let them catch and beat us, we still intend to commemorate our friends killed on April 30 last year. Those who hamper us are also terrorists", one of the action participants emotionally told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As a result, the area of the action grew far beyond the Dzhafar Dzhabbrly square where, initially, the young people intended to hold the mourning meeting, but the city authorities refused to allow the action.

The police activity was managed by Yashar Aliyev, deputy chief of the Baku Main Police Department. He explains the suppression of the action by the fact that it was not sanctioned by the mayor's office. According to Aliyev, "it is not an action of commemoration but an attempt to hold a march-meeting". Aliyev claims that the city authorities proposed a choice of three places for holding the action of commemoration. Also, mourning events were held in universities anyway, says Yashar Aliyev.

Among the detainees, there were Nigiar Fatali, a well-known blogger, Vafa Dzhafarova, a youth activist, and representatives of different youth organizations.

Some young people were beaten at the moment of detaining. Physical pressure was also exerted at the police stations of Nasimin district where the detainees were brought.

Specifically, according to the data of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), on April 30, "more than 150 persons were totally detained ".

The Institute points out that, from April 14 to 30,  2010, the police detained about 300 citizens who were trying to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of assembly. Leila Yunus, IPD head, considers such repressive measures to be actions of intimidation on the eve of the parliamentary elections.

In its turn, the Institute of Freedom and Security of Reporters (IFSR) reports facts of pressure on journalists covering the April 30 action by the police and persons in plain clothes. The IFSR reminds that hampering professional activity of journalists is a criminal act and calls on the authorities to hold the people, who violate the law, responsible.

Most participants of the action were released by the evening of April 30.