Another group aiming at establishing Sharia state in Azerbaijan unmasked

Baku/06.04.23/Turan: Azerbaijan's security forces have disclosed another group of persons suspected of cooperation with the Iranian special services and charged with building a state governed by Sharia law in the country.

Employees of the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry, State Security Service and Prosecutor General's Office carried out joint special integrated operational measures "with the purpose of suppressing criminal actions committed by a group of persons aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country," an official report of the indicated bodies says.
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According to the law enforcement bodies, Ruhullah Akhundzadeh and Bakhtiar Bayramov, residents of Iran and cooperating with the intelligence services of this country, in exchange for a cash payment instructed a resident of Terter region Arif Jumshudov to form a "Resistance Group" aimed at creating a Shariah law-governed state "Kerime".

The task of the "Resistance Group" was to organize "armed disturbances in the country" with the aim of "seizing power" and "violently changing the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Arif Jumshudov, in connection with the tasks received, involved his acquaintances, promoting religious radicalism - Tarzan Garashov, Sanan Mammadov, Khagani Mammadov and Igbal Akhundov in the said activity. Jumshudov passed instructions to Akhundzadeh and Bayramov to these individuals during secret meetings in his home.

Members of the group, involving additional persons, informed Akhundzadeh about this.

Besides, Akhundzadeh recruited Baku resident Anar Isayev for "cooperation", who was also instructed to create a "Resistance Group" for the purpose of establishing a "Kerime" state.

Akhundzadeh introduced Isayev to Jumshudov for joint activities, promising big money, weapons and all necessary support.

Note that A. Jumshudov, T.Garashov, S. Mammadov, H. Mammadova, I. Akhundov and Isayev were detained.

"The detainees, posing as "believers", in social networks and at ceremonies where people gathered en masse, conducted propaganda in favour of Iran and religious radicalism, and carried out tasks received from abroad with the aim of undermining the traditions of tolerance established in Azerbaijan," the Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies further noted.

Members of the group also organized the sale of drugs sent from Iran, and used the money received for the propaganda of religious radicalism and the financing of other subversive activities in Azerbaijan.

However, there is no indication as to the specific articles of the charges against the detainees.

Over the past six months, several groups of people suspected of creating a "Kerime" state in Azerbaijan, i.e. governed by Sharia law, have been detained.

The arrests occur against a backdrop of ongoing tensions in Azerbaijan-Iran relations, caused by Tehran's dissatisfaction with Azerbaijan's strengthened independent foreign policy after the second Karabakh war in 2020.-06B-