Protests at Hungarian sentence continue in Azeri towns

ANS TV, Baku
15 Apr 06

[Presenter Natavan Babayeva] Protest actions continue against the life
sentence by a Budapest court to Ramil Safarov accused of killing
Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan [at a NATO course in Hungary].
Young people staged an unauthorized protest action outside State
University of Languages a short while ago. The protesters chanted:
“Down with injustice”, “Freedom to Ramil Safarov” and “Karabakh is
ours and will be ours”. They tried to march towards Azadliq Square
along Rasid Behbudov Street [central Baku]. Police stopped them and
detained five people.

The local branch of the Karabakh Liberation Organization, war veterans
and families of martyrs today staged a march and rally in Mingacevir
[central Azerbaijan] to protect the rights of Ramil Safarov. They
chanted “Freedom to Ramil Safarov” and demanded that the Budapest
court’s unfair verdict be cancelled. The rally also said that this was
not just the violation of Ramil Safarov’s rights, but that of war
veterans and families of martyrs. The march started at the town’s
Heydar Aliyev Avenue and ended at the Martyrs’ Avenue. The action
passed off without incidents.

A group of young people tried to stage a picket in the central square
in Ganca [northwestern Azerbaijan] with the same demands. Ten minutes
following the beginning of the action policemen arrived at the square
and dispersed the pickets. Two pickets were detained and taken to the
Nizami district police department. The ANS Ganca bureau reports that
Irada Agayeva and Elsan Mammadov were released after the two-hour
detention in the police department. The young people spoke about their
plans to continue protests against the verdict by the Budapest
court. The Ganca town police department said that the picket was
dispersed because it was unauthorized and the actions of this nature
will be thwarted in the future as well.

[Video showed protest actions]