The Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan reported the arrest of three activists in a week.

Azerbaijan Popular Front Party member Faig Nagiyev has been sentenced to 30 days of administrative arrest. The party stated that three activists had been subjected to similar persecution in the past week and called it politically motivated.

As Caucasian Knot reported, PFPA members Farid Guliyev and Valishan Hasanov were previously arrested under administrative law. Both opposition figures had recently been driving party leader Ali Karimli around in their cars.

Fuad Nagiyev, chairman of the party's Khatai district branch, has been out of contact since yesterday, November 12, PFPA press officer Tezekhan Miralamli told Caucasian Knot. "Meetings of the board of the National Council of Democratic Forces are held on Wednesdays. These meetings are held at the dacha of NCDF board member Vidadi Mirkamal in Pirshagi, a suburb of Baku. Nagiyev left his home around midday to pick up our party chairman, Ali Karimli, and take him to a meeting of the National Council. However, after he left the house, contact with him was lost," Miralamli said. According to him, it was only towards the evening of November 12 that it became known that Nagiyev had been arrested. "Fuad Nagiyev himself called from the detention center and reported that he had been arrested for 30 days," Miralamli said. He noted that Nagiyev was charged with the administrative offenses of "petty hooliganism" and "disobeying the police." Miralamli recalled that PFPA activists Farid Guliyev and Valishan Hasanov were also administratively detained on the same charges.

"The charges against all three are politically motivated. It is clear that they were arrested solely for driving our party leader Ali Karimli in their personal cars. The number of PFPA members arrested on administrative or criminal charges for accompanying Ali Karimli to public events has reached 11 since March of this year," Miralamli emphasized.

In turn, lawyer Fakhraddin Mehdiyev visited Guliyev and Hasanov, who were administratively detained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on November 12 at the detention center. The lawyer clarified that Farid Guliyev was arrested for 30 days, and Hasanov for 15. According to Mehdiyev, the opposition members had no complaints about ill-treatment during their arrest or about the conditions of their detention. However, according to him, Guliyev and Gasanov claimed not to have committed the offenses they were accused of, and police officers failed to present credible evidence of their guilt. The lawyer said he would appeal the decisions to arrest Guliyev and Gasanov.

Earlier, Ali Kerimli condemned the persecution of PFPA activists who provide him with driver or bodyguard services on a voluntary basis.

"Essentially, I have neither a driver nor a professional permanent bodyguard. After the arrest of PFPA activist Pasha Umudov in 2019, I haven't had a driver. "After Niyameddin Akhmedov, Kenan Basgal, Kenan Zeynalov and Novruz Tagiev, who provided me with security on a voluntary basis, were arrested, I no longer have a bodyguard. Activists drive me to various events in their cars. Some of them also accompany me to these events," Kerimli wrote on Facebook* on November 7. He noted that the purpose of the arrests is to intimidate his supporters.