Head of educative NGO Gasan Guseinli detained in Azerbaijan

Gasan Guseinli is the head of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) named "Educative Centre 'Intellectual Citizen'", located in the city of Ganja (Gandzha). He is charged with hooliganism committed with weapons or objects used as weapons, which threatens him with up to seven years in prison. Before his detention, he managed to announce that it was a provocation.

Gasan Guseinli was detained in the afternoon on March 31. His relatives were not informed; and only in the morning on April 1 they learnt that Gasan Guseinli was kept at the Nizami District Police Station of Ganja.

He is defended by the lawyer Alaif Gasanov, who said that he could not meet his client yet.

Emin Guseinov, Director of the Institute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) does not rule out that Guseinli's detention may be associated with the activities of the "Educative Centre 'Intellectual Citizen'", which is one of the most active civil society institutions in the Western Azerbaijan.