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The head of the Azerbaijani NGO "Intelligent citizen" Hasan Nizami Huseynli was arrested for committing acts of "hooliganism committed with weapons or objects used as weapons," the Azerbaijani information agency Turan reports.

Huseynli himself on the eve of his detention told Azerbaijani service of Radio LIberty on March 31 that in the main post office a stranger approached him and said, "Why did you step on my foot?" Then the stranger insulted Huseynli and tried to knock him down to the ground. At that moment a woman attacked Huseynli, shouting, "Why have you clung to him?" "I realized that it was a provocation against me and quickly left the scene without saying a word," said Huseynli.

According to the agency recent activities of Huseynli’s organization in Ganja irritated the chief executive of the city, Elmar Valiyev, who expressed dissatisfaction with the active participation of young people in the projects of the Center. Moreover the private house where the NGO office was located was demolished recently.

As Huseynli’s lawyer Alaif Hasanov told the agency the head of the NGO is suspected of committing acts provided in the Article 221.3 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan "hooliganism committed with weapons or objects used as weapons." He will be sentenced from between three to seven years of imprisonment.

“In general, in recent years the pressure on civil society in Ganja has grown, as well as throughout the whole country. This pressure is characterized by tightening legislation on NGOs and the media, and the arrest of political and civil society activists,” Turan writes.

The head of the EU mission in Azerbaijan, Malena Mard expressed her concerns about detention of the civil activist. She believes that the charges on hooliganism seem to be weird as far as the mission knows Huseynli and his organization quite well and cooperates with this NGO.

Representatives of Azerbaijani diaspora in the U.S. responded as well; they published a petition on the White House website with a call to help to free the wrongly imprisoned civil activist.

According to the agency Turan the petition has garnered more than 100 signatures.

Civil Society of Azerbaijan as well stepped for Hasan Huseynli. Dozens of people issued a Joint statement where they strongly condemn the detention on fabricated charges of Huseynli.

The statement reads that the NGO has been known for promotion of open society, human rights and democracy ideas in the western part of Azerbaijan and implementation of educational programs.

Together with local and foreign structures the "Intelligent Citizen" Awareness Center has carried out more than 20 successful projects. Such active work of the Centre has raised concerns of Ganja executive power, which found nothing better than to start a campaign to pressure Huseynli, state the representatives of the civil society.

Authors of the statement call the arrest of Huseynli "integral part of repressions against independent NGOs that have begun late last year." They call on the authorities to release all those civil society activists arrested on trumped up charges.

“Coming less than two month to go before Azerbaijan's assumes its first Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, this arrest once again demonstrates Azerbaijan's reluctance to protect fundamental rights and freedoms,” the document reads.

As a result, as Turan notes, Azerbaijani authorities did not dare to arrest Hasan Huseynli. According to the lawyer a measure of restraint is chosen against Huseynli - keeping him under the police surveillance. This means that Huseynli cannot get out of the town and must regularly attend the police.

International organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, “The Committee to Protect Journalists," and others have repeatedly called on the Azerbaijani authorities to release those arrested for political reasons. Amnesty International recognized at the end of the last year, the presence of 14 "prisoners of conscience" in Azerbaijan. According to AI and HRW, in 2013 10 journalists were arrested in Azerbaijan. British organization Index on Censorship stated that freedom of speech in Azerbaijan is under serious threat. According to the organization, in the year of the presidential election the suppression of freedom of speech has reached an unprecedented scale.