Tensions remain high in the village of Seyudlu, where residents have complained of the environmental and health impacts of emissions from a nearby gold mine.
On 27 June, additional police special forces in four buses were deployed in the village.
According to local residents, police officers have threatened to forcefully suppress any new protests. A video has circulated on social media in which an elderly resident alleges that a certain police officer named Bahram has publicly ordered the police to "beat women on their genitals" so that they are then embarrassed to produce evidence of violence on their bodies.
Yesterday, Mukhtar Babayev, chairman of the established government commission on Seyudlu, visited the village again.
However, he did not say anything specific to the villagers, except that on 28 June results of samples taken from the soil, air and water in the artificial lake where wastes from the mine are discharged will be known.
In Baku, activists set up the Seyudlu working group to protect the rights of Seyudlu residents.
Access to the village has been blocked since 22 June and journalists and activists are not allowed in.
On 20 June, residents of Seyudlu held a protest, alleging pollution by a nearby gold mining company.
The police violently dispersed the protest. As a result of the dispersal, 10 people were injured, five were detained and administratively arrested for 20 days. Another resident was fined 1,500 manats. Later, several more people were detained. However, law enforcement agencies did not disclose the number of detainees.
