Six Shia women in Azerbaijan have been remanded to three months of pre-trial detention for allegedly staging a protest ‘under the guise’ of a religious ceremony.
The social media page Hamam Times reported that the women were detained on 14 August as they were distributing alms in commemoration of Arba’in — which is observed 40 days after Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Husayn ibn Ali.
According to the pro-government media outlet Report, the six women were remanded to detention on Monday.
The independent media outlet Meydan TV reported that one of the women, Shahla Farajova, was brought to her home as it was being searched by the police. The outlet cited Telegram channel Ar-Rad Info as saying that police switched off cameras in her neighbourhood, and that during the search, they planted a bottle of methamphetamine and a flashdrive with the words ‘ya Husayn’ — an Arabic phrase invoking Husayn often used by Shia Muslims — inscribed on it.
The chair of the Muslim Unity Movement, Taleh Baghirzada — currently serving a prison sentence on charges of inciting hatred and plotting to overthrow the government — criticised the detentions.
‘The tomorrow of this country opens with illegal arrests and slander’, he said, according to a statement attributed to him on Facebook.
Baghirzada was sentenced following the violent police raids on Baku’s Nardaran neighbourhood in which seven people, including two police officers, were killed in 2015.
Aytan Farhadova
