Anar Aliyev stubbornly continues to testify against Gubad Ibadoglu

The trial of Istanbul University doctoral student and economist Fazil Gasymov, who was detained in Turkey in 2023 and brought to Azerbaijan, continues in the Baku Court of Serious Crimes. He and another person involved in the case, Anar Aliyev, are accused of counterfeiting, and according to the investigation, economist and politician Gubad Ibadoglu is also involved in this case.

At a court hearing on January 9, Aliyev reiterated that Ibadoglu had allegedly given him counterfeit dollars, but the defendant himself was unaware of this. Aliyev pleaded not guilty to counterfeiting, but accepted the charge of illegal possession of weapons. "I found the gun a few years ago. I kept it at home. I took the gun to hide it somewhere else. On the way, I was detained by the police. They took me to the police station, searched me and took away my weapon," the accused said.

The lawyers asked Aliyev about his relationship with Gubad Ibadoglu. He said that they met with Ibadoglu both in person and via ‘WhatsApp’.: "About two weeks before my arrest, there was a video conference via 'WhatsApp'. Later, another person named Fazil joined the call. As I said at the last court hearing, the one sitting in the dock is not the Fazil I saw. A week after this online meeting, Qubad and I met in the parking lot in front of the Imam Hussein Mosque. He gave me dollars there. When my house was searched, I gave the money to the police,” Aliyev said.

Gasymov presented several photographs to the court during his testimony. "These are the photos that I took before my arrest (shows his own photos - ed.). I showed them to Anar in the pre-trial detention center. He said that the person he was talking to in the video is not in this photo,” Gasymov said.

The court did not grant Gasymov's request to include the episode with the photographs in the protocol, referring to the fact that the photo was not relevant to the case. Gasymov asked Aliyev several questions. However, Aliyev did not respond to any of them.

On January 10, the trial continued. Gasymov's defense team and the prosecutor asked questions to Aliyev. According to the defense, there are inconsistencies in Aliyev's testimony in court and during the investigation. The judge granted the defense's request to clarify this contradiction. Aliyev said that he did not want to give information about "some details during the investigation, but then revealed them."

In his testimony, Aliyev stated that he had received counterfeit money from Ibadoglu. Aliev refused to answer questions from Gasymov and his defense team, explaining the refusal by saying that these were repeated questions.

The process will continue next week. Gubad Ibadoglu had previously stated that he was not familiar with Aliyev. According to Ibadoglu, last summer, a man approached him in the parking lot of the 'Teze Pir' mosque, who began complaining about life and economic difficulties. This man looks like Aliyev, whom the investigation presented as an accused.

In April last year, the case against Ibadoglu was separated into separate proceedings and he was released from custody, but still remains under police supervision. *Fazil Gasymov was arrested in Istanbul on August 8, 2023 and taken to Azerbaijan. He was accused of making counterfeit money together with a well-known economist and critic of the Azerbaijani government, Gubad Ibadoglu.

But now the criminal case of Fazil Gasymov is being considered separately from the criminal case of Ibadoglu. In June, he went on a hunger strike to protest his illegal arrest. Recently, he still refuses to eat, taking only yogurt sweetened with honey and water.--