At the trial  the case of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev

The trial   the case of public activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev continued in the Baku Court of Serious Crimes on March 15. In his testimony, he confirmed that he would plead not guilty to any charges. Focusing on the charge of smuggling, he said that during the 44-day war he received money transfers via the Western Union system from Turkiye and Germany and these were donations for Azerbaijani soldiers. The money was used to purchase warm clothes for the military abroad.

There were cases when it was necessary to quickly pass goods without customs declaration. To do this, he turned to presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev, after which the goods were quickly passed through.  However, the allegations of the investigation that Hajiyev smuggled money from grants are not true. Therefore, he asked the court to release him, but was refused. Hajiyev also petitioned for court sessions to be held more often, because he has been in custody for 16 months and this in itself is torture. To this, the judge said that after Novruz, meetings would be held twice a week. The next meeting is scheduled for April 5.

* Bakhtiar Hajiyev was detained on December 9, 2022 on charges of hooliganism under Articles 221 and 289 (contempt of court) of the Criminal Code.  In July of the same year, he was charged under Articles 192 (illegal entrepreneurship), 193-1 (legalization of proceeds from crime) and 206 (smuggling) of the Criminal Code.

On November 7, Hajiyev was charged under Article 213.1 of the Criminal Code (tax evasion, unemployment insurance payments, compulsory medical and social insurance). All the charges are fabricated. Bakhtiar Hajiyev is convinced that the reason for the arrest and charges is the criticism of the authorities. Human rights activists recognized him as a political prisoner.