President Ilham Aliyev ordered the case to be dropped after an international and domestic outpouring of support for the young imprisoned blogger. Activists cheered the concession as a victory of people power.
Several political prisoners and activists have declared hunger strikes in solidarity, and both the government and opposition have slammed the Western response.
The activists were conducting a march to celebrate a national holiday, but the authorities accused them of doing it for unsanctioned “political purposes.”
Admiration of the first republic and its president comes at the expense of the man today's authorities prefer to see as father of the nation: Heydar Aliyev.