Azerbaijani journalist detained on hooliganism charges

In Baku, law enforcers have detained Anar Abdulla, a journalist, and accused him of petty hooliganism and disobeying the police.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in September 2020, Anar Abdulla (Abdullaev) was detained because of a conflict with a Baku resident while reporting about a solo picket. The police fined him for petty hooliganism. Abdulla claimed that he had been attacked by a provocateur and linked the incident with his civil position.

In 2012, Abdulla joined the "Nida" movement, which held protests against non-combat losses in the army. In May 2016, he was arrested for 10 days. In 2018, he moved to the Centre for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Training and began cooperating with the website "gozetci.az" and other editions. In July 2020, Abdulla was among the three journalists detained at an action in support of the army, which turned into clashes with the police.

According to Mina Alyarly, an activist, on October 5, law enforcers came to Anar Abdulla's home in order to summon him to the Baku police department.

Anar's relatives were informed that he was accused of disobeying the police. "We believe that these are far-fetched and politically motivated accusations. Anar himself came to the police ... We believe that he was detained because of his comment with sharp criticism of authorities placed under the post of another user in a social network," Ms Alyarly said, adding that Abdulla himself is periodically publishing posts criticizing authorities.