Law enforcers threatened to disperse oppositional rally in Baku

Law enforcers have warned the organizers of a rally scheduled at the building of Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) that the unsanctioned action will be suppressed. Oppositionists treat the warning as unlawful.

Ilgar Mamedov, the head of the Republican Alternative (ReAl) Party, and Ruslan Izzetli, the chairman of the D18 movement, have notified the Baku Mayoralty about the planned rally against "falsification of outcomes of parliamentary elections," but received a refusal to sanction the rally in the city centre. Instead, the city authorities offered to hold the rally in the dwelling settlement of Lokbatan.

The opposition has treated the refusal to sanction the rally in central Baku as a violation of the freedom of assembly and again appealed to the Mayoralty on February 13, Faradj Kerimli, the deputy chairman of the "Musavat" Party, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. However, the Azerbaijan Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) stated that the rally in front of the CEC will be suppressed.

Ilgar Mamedov, one of the organizers of the rally and the leader of the ReAl Party, believes the planned peaceful action is legitimate.

"The constitution guarantees the freedom of peaceful assembly ... Voters have the right to raise their protest voices after elections – against falsifications thereof," he has stated.