On February 17 morning, drivers in Baku got stuck in an hours-long traffic jam, only to learn later that it was caused by four truck drivers who stopped their vehicles on purpose on the main avenue.
Truckers were protesting the state road regulating agency which allegedly denied permits that would allow them to transport goods across the Azerbaijani border. One wrote a slogan on the side of the vehicle, addressing Anar Rzayev, the chief of the State Automobile Transport Service, and another employee of the agency:
Anar Rzayev and Malik Aliyev, who fed us up! Give us the permit forms! Products are about to get spoiled! We have gone bankrupt!
After the road was cleared, in the afternoon the Automobile Transport Service released a statement that all carriers are able to receive allocated permit sheets they need without barriers. “Only one carrier – Ramish Jafarov [the trucker who put the slogan on] went against our allocation, demanded special privileges and threatened the state body,” it added.
By the evening, the news came around that the truckers were detained by the police. On a live streaming from the front of the police station, Jafarov’s father claimed that 15 plainclothes police officers with masks jumped over fences, enterred their house and took away Jafarov. During the live streaming, human rights defenders Rufat Safarov and Zaur Akbarov were detained too and released shortly after.
In the evening, on TV network ATV a video was broadcast where the truckers in the police station apologized for causing traffic jam in the city.
The video, which appeared to be part of a new trend of Azerbaijani police making suspects apologize on camera, irritated many on social media, who expressed solidarity with the truckers. Bahruz Samadov, activist, tweeted:
To force (social) protesters to acknowledge their actions as a ‘mistake’ and to ask for forgiveness is a part of the broader logic of punishment in Azerbaijan. Just like the imprisoned (politicized) subject is offered to write a plea for clemency to Sovereign.
Next day, the truckers were brought to trial. Ramish Jafarov was arrested for two months on charge of violation of public order, and two others for a month on charges of hooliganism and disobedience against police. Another was freed given the health conditions.
