Police in Azerbaijan on Saturday detained scores of protesters, including the leader of the main opposition Popular Front, at the start of a planned rally against low salaries, corruption and a lack of democracy in the energy-rich ex-Soviet state.
The
protesters have a wide range of demands, including higher salaries for state employees and fair and independent
elections in a country long accused by human rights groups and Western governments of a lack of transparency.
Popular Front leader Ali Kerimli told reporters before his own detention that some 50 people, mostly organizers of Saturday's unauthorized rally, had already been detained earlier in the week.