ARRESTS IN APRIL 2019
Anar Jabbarov
01 April
According to Veten ugrunda agency, relatives of the deported Anar Jabbarov from Turkey on 22 March could not find out about his whereabouts for some time. Only on 01 April, they received a call from the ombudsman office in order to be informed that Anar Jabbarov had been transferred to detention facility No. 1 in Kyurdakhani village. His relatives were also pointed out that the believer allegedly had taken part in the events in the village of Nardaran in November 2015, then fled to Turkey and therefore his name was declared wanted by the police.
04 April
It had been discovered that year again, the incriminated article and Anar Jabbarov’s status deported from Turkey to Azerbaijan had been changed. He was detained in Turkey “due to problems with his documents”, in Azerbaijan he was told that he had taken part in the events of November 2015, which is, according to the official authorities statement he had participated in “riots, terrorist acts and destabilization of the socio-political situation in the republic”. However, a few days later it turned out that after 14 days of detention (!) in Baku, the authorities found some drugs during the search of the detained and deported from Turkey Anar Jabbarov, and now he is charged with violation of Article 234.4.3 (illegal acquisition or storage for the purpose of selling drugs on a large scale) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan! In the meantime, neither relatives nor lawyer Bahruz Bayramov managed to meet or talk over the phone with the arrested Anar Jabbarov.
05 April
On the evening of 04 April, there was another change in the fate of believer Anar Jabbarov. He was transferred from pre-trial detention facility No. 1 in Kyurdakhani village to the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the afternoon of 05 April, his relatives and lawyer were informed that all charges had been dropped and Anar had been released from custody.
27 April
According to the Turan agency reports, on 26 April, the local law enforcement agencies detained another Azerbaijani believer Elnur Mehdiyev in Turkey. That information was provided by his relatives. The reasons for his detention are unknown but it is assumed that he was also detained in connection with the events in the village of Nardaran in November 2015, when the police had been conducting a special operation against activists of the Muslim Unity Movement in this Baku suburb.