On 14 April, a member of the Popular Front Party, Baba Suleiman, was arrested following a court decision. He was detained near the house of the Popular Front Party leader Ali Karimli, reported Turan. A day earlier, it was reported that Ali Karimli’s internet access was blocked 10 minutes before a scheduled interview of the opposition leader.
Three days earlier, on 10 April, the opposition National Council of Democratic Forces in Azerbaijan released a statement, saying that at least 16 opposition activists “have been the victim of this repressive policy” since the coronavirus outbreak began in the country, following the arrests of 6 opposition figures. Amongst the detained were a member of the Supreme Council of the opposition Popular Front Party Nijat Abdullayev, the financial director of opposition newspaper Azadlig and Karimli’s assistant Faig Amirli, Karimli’s bodyguard Ruslan Amirli and two members of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare Movement (ADR), Shakir Mammadov and Vafadar Aliyev.
“While the whole world is fighting against the coronavirus pandemic, the Azerbaijani government is taking advantage of the situation to accelerate its hunt for opposition members. They don’t want anyone to criticize their incompetence in fighting the pandemic, their inability to provide for the population which has been forced to not work,” stated Karimli after Amirli’s detention. According to Karimli, the signs of the government's repressions of opposition activists were in the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statements given during Novruz Bayram (Caucasus Watch reported).
Members of the ruling New Azerbaijan party (NAP) dismissed the possibility that the arrests were politically motivated and blamed the opposition for staging political provocations during the special quarantine regime in the country.
According to the First Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijani parliament Ali Huseynli, opposition activists are trying to take advantage of the situation in the country and stage affronts to the ruling party. “At a time when the state and the people of Azerbaijan united and mobilized forces to fight the global pandemic, such behavior can only be considered a provocation, and we believe that Azerbaijani public opinion evaluates the problem in this way. If you remember, we saw the result of this in biased statements made by some international organizations some time ago. Now the fifth column in Azerbaijan is doing this. As you know, our administrative and criminal laws have been amended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. All citizens of Azerbaijan were informed about these changes in a timely and efficient manner, and the public is fully aware of the problems,” he said. A similar point of view was shared by the NAP deputy Emin Hajiyev.
According to the Administrative Code of Azerbaijan, the violation of a quarantine regime is punishable by fines of 100–200 manats ($60–$120) or detention for up to 1 month.
The current tally of Covid-19 infected persons in Azerbaijan stands at 1197, with 13 reported deaths.
