Police conduct harsh detentions at rally in Baku

60 people were detained at an oppositional rally in Baku; 42 were released after warning; materials on the remaining 18 will be sent to courts, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has informed. Oppositionists claim that there were "much more" detainees.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the authorities had allowed the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) to hold a rally in a Baku suburb. However, activists decided to gather at the metro station in a Baku square. On October 17, opposition leaders reported the detention of the rally organizers. Today, law enforcers conducted mass detentions. According to the opposition, about a hundred people were detained.

Alesker Mamedli, a member of the "Civil Society Platform", has treated the confrontation of policemen with supporters of the opposition as "an unannounced introduction of the state of emergency."

"The police have seriously limited the citizens' freedom of travel by blocking many streets in central Baku ... The providers of Internet services stopped working for several hours, which caused damages to citizens and private businesses," Mr Mamedli has explained.

"The city administration has restricted the citizens' freedom of assembly. And the police behaved excessively aggressively with people, who protested peacefully," Alesker Mamedli has added.

In his turn, Siyavush Novruzov, a deputy executive secretary of the ruling "Eni Azerbaijan" Party, has accused the opposition of provocations.

"These people wanted not to hold a rally, but to provoke ... Their goal was to denigrate the image of Azerbaijan in the international arena," the "report.az" quotes him as saying.