Protesters calling for the discharge of political prisoners in Azerbaijan instructed NCS they were attacked by safety guards defending the nation’s President Ilham Aliyev in Washington, DC on Thursday following President Donald Trumps’s inaugural Board of Peace meeting.
Footage circulated on social media exhibits protesters being thrown to the bottom as a bunch of suited males bodily apprehend them exterior the lodge Aliyev was staying in.
The demonstrators had gathered exterior of the lodge to advocate for political freedom of political prisoners and journalists. They had supposed to be peaceable, in accordance with protester Adil Amrakhly, who spoke to NCS by way of a translator. The incident occurred because the group made its means towards Aliyev’s motorcade, which was getting back from the Board of Peace occasion.
“If his (Aliyev’s) security personnel can attack peaceful protesters in the center of Washington, DC, it raises serious concerns about what happens to opposition members and the more than 400 political prisoners currently detained in Azerbaijan,” Amrakhly stated.
Amrakhly instructed NCS the group was ready close to the lodge’s primary entrance for Aliyev’s return and ran towards one other entrance when they noticed his automobile strategy it as a substitute.
A spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s embassy to the US denied the claims, saying that Aliyev’s guards “had no choice” however to reply when “protesters violently attempted to enter the protected area and took offensive actions against the presidential vehicle.”
They added that the lodge was included within the US Secret Service’s official safety perimeter for the occasion.
Another protester, Rahim Yagublu, whose father, Tofig Yagublu, is imprisoned in Azerbaijan, instructed NCS, “We did nothing to (the guards.)”
“The videos clearly show that I was only chanting slogans while they were hitting me,” Yagublu stated.
The Metropolitan Police Department instructed NCS it’s conscious of the incident and no arrests were made. The US Secret Service, which was on the scene, declined to remark and has referred the problem to the State Department, in accordance with MPD.
The State Department didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.
Amrakhly, who lives in Virginia and is an organizer for the Charter of the American Organization of Azerbaijani Political Refugees, stated 5 individuals were injured, together with one particular person with a concussion. He stated some protesters’ relations, who nonetheless stay in Azerbaijan, skilled political intimidation on Friday, with questioning at police stations and of their workplaces.
Yagublu instructed NCS that he’s apprehensive about his father now and fears the Azerbaijani authorities might torture or kill him in response. Last yr, Tofig Yagublu was sentenced to 9 years in jail for criticizing the federal government, in accordance with the advocacy group Freedom Now.
Azerbaijan’s embassy didn’t reply earlier than publication to feedback alleging intimidation in opposition to the relations of the protesters.
The incident remembers an incident in 2017 throughout which safety officers for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan beat up protesters exterior the nation’s embassy in Washington. The US later dropped expenses in opposition to 11 of the 15 bodyguards who were indicted after the brawl.
NCS’s Anna Chernova contributed to this report.