Amnesty International has put up a petition addressed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, appealing for the release of Jabbar Savalan, the young pro-democracy activist who was charged with drug possession and convicted in May. As noted on this blog earlier, Savalan was arrested “after calling for protest actions on Facebook and attending a youth conference in the city of Sumgayit. He was taken to a police station where police searched him and allegedly found a small amount of marijuana in his jacket pocket.”
Jabbar Savalan
The arrest and conviction have been widely interpreted as punishment for his political activities. The Amnesty International petition can be found here.