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Council of Europe's Commissioner on human rights, Nils Muižnieks, condemned the violence of the police in Azerbaijan against young activists Giyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mammadov, Turan news agency reports.

"I am very concerned about allegations of ill-treatment of two youth activists, Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov while in police custody in Baku, Azerbaijan. The men were detained on 10 May on charges of drug possession which lack credibility, after painting a graffiti on a monument of the former president of Azerbaijan and posting pictures of it on social media," Muižnieks told Turan.  "I urge the authorities to ensure that a full and effective investigation is promptly carried out into these ill-treatment allegations."

Two young activists of NiDA opposition movement, Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov, have been arrested in Azerbaijan on drug charges. NiDA said in a statement that the real reason of detaining the young men is that they had painted on the pedestal of Heydar Aliyev’s monument in the center of Baku at night of May 10.

According to the Azerbaijani media, at night of Heydar Aliyev’s (current Azerbaijani president's father) birthday, unknown authors painted on the pedestal of the monument, towards which marches traditionally begin to bow to the “nationwide leader” and “savior of the nation” since morning.

The inscription was a pun on the phrase “Congratulations on flower festival,” in the first word of which, two letters were changed giving the word and the phrase a different meaning quite popular among the Azerbaijani dissidents and opposition - “Congratulations on the slavery festival!”

The flower festival has been annually celebrated in Azerbaijan on May 10 since 2004. It is dedicated to Heydar Aliyev’s birthday. Huge sums of money are spent on the festival. In particular, Baku City Hall published the figure 15 million dollars in 2007, and in 2013, on Heydar Aliyev’s 90th anniversary, this sum exceeded 76 million dollars.