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By the submission of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan, by the decree of the district courts, the bank accounts of number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been arrested, reports Azerbaijani information agency "APA".

According to the submission of the Prosecutor General’s Office to the Court, the NGOs have mostly had the same content. It is noted that in connection to the offenses identified in the activities of a number of Azerbaijani NGOs, branches and representative offices of foreign NGOs in Azerbaijan, criminal case under articles 308.1 and 313 of the Criminal Code is filed.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Marshall Fund (USA) representative office in Azerbaijan, a International Research and Exchange (IREX) humanitarian organization, Institute Assistance Foundation "Open Society" (Principality of Liechtenstein) and the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan were sending on the bank accounts of those NGOs large sums of money and these amounts were a subject, a tool and a means of committing crimes, the article reads.

"IREX representation in Azerbaijan stated that all of its activities within the country are still carried out in the boundaries of the law. All this activity was closely coordinated with the Republican Commission for international humanitarian assistance to the Azerbaijani Republic, which is chaired by Ali Hasanov, and is carried out with the mutual coordination and information," the organization states.

Azerbaijani information agency "Turan" reports that, currently due to criminal cases filed against a number of local and foreign NGOs, also accounts of 12 banks and 13 NGO activists are arrested. However, there are more people whose bank accounts are arrested. They are the ones who personally received grants from the American and European donors, due to the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities did not register the NGOs, led by some activists. The news agency learned about this from sources in civil society.

"Turan" has also published the appeal of the human rights activist Elshan Hasanov, which states that there is no law in the country. "The arrests of bloggers and youth activists, human rights defenders (Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunusov, Rasul Jafarov) criminal proceedings started against more than 20 NGOs leaders and lawyers gave a result. We are afraid, we are afraid for the children, we are afraid for our relatives and friends, we fear for the future of our country. We live in constant fear of arrest and torture. We continue our existence under systematic blackmail," stated the human rights activist.