A court in Azerbaijan has sentenced 19 people to prison sentences of various lengths in connection to mass protests that erupted after a police car hit four schoolchildren in the village of Yalavaj in January, killing three.
All 19 convicted of hooliganism.
The sentences ranged from one to four years, the independent media outlet Meydan TV reported on Thursday.
The accident took place on 18 January in the village of Yalavaj, on the outskirts of the city of Imishli in southern Azerbaijan. At the time, residents of the village said a police car hit the group of four children as they travelled home from school.
One of the girls, fourth grader Ayan Mammadova, died immediately, with sixth-grader Zumrud Miraliyeva passing away shortly after. A third girl, Mahbuba Alizada, sustained grave injuries and died in the following days. The fourth, a boy, was the only survivor.
Following the accident, residents of Yalavaj held a spontaneous protest, smashing the police car and shouting ‘resignation’. It is unclear whose resignation they were calling for.
Azerbaijan reportedly deployed internal troops to disperse the protest.
In the resulting days, authorities arrested more than 100 people, a local resident told OC Media at the time, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Other sources said the police had effectively ‘locked down’ the city to quell the protests.
Aytan Farhadova
