Opposition calls on Azerbaijan’s authorities to stop persecution of activists

The Azerbaijan’s authorities should stop the unjustified persecution of activists, the opposition National Council of Democratic Forces declares. The oppositionists have called to punish the persons responsible for the kidnapping of Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, the head of the NGO “Positive Changes”.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on April 23, Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, the head of the NGO “Positive Changes”, said that on the evening of April 21, he was kidnapped by four men in masks. According to the activist, the kidnappers took him to a suburb of Baku, where he was subjected to humiliating treatment. The kidnappers demanded from Bakhtiyar Gadjiev to remove critical posts about the Minister of Internal Affairs and a pro-government activist and threatened with reprisals if he continued to criticize the Minister.

The National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) condemned the kidnapping of Bakhtiyar Gadjiev. In its statement, the NCDF noted that the activist was forced to remove from his Facebook* page the posts about the Minister of Internal Affairs.

The NCDF suggested that Bakhtiyar Gadjiev had been kidnapped “either with the consent of the authorities or at their direction” and demanded to punish the persons guilty of the kidnapping.

According to the NCDF, the Azerbaijan’s authorities intensify repressions against their opponents. As another example, the NCDF’s statement mentions the beating and detention of human rights defender Rufat Safarov in front of the Baku Court of Appeal.

* On March 21, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 25, 2022 at 04:42 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.