Avaz Zeynally called to Prosecutor General`s Office Because of Interview with Mehman Aliyev

Baku / 26.01.18 / Turan: The editor of the online publication Khural and the leader of the program Gaynar Gazan Avaz Zeynalli was invited to the Prosecutor General's Office on January 26 in connection with the interview with the director of the Turan news agency Mehman Aliyev.

Referring to reliable sources, Aliyev said the initiator of his arrest on the pretext of tax evasion in August 2017 was Ali Hasanov, the Presidential Aide on public and political issues and Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov.

"They both appealed to the President about the need for my arrest and explained this with some kind of threat that I could represent to the authorities in 2018," Aliyev said.

For the first time, Mehman Aliyev publicly announced this in an online interview with Osmangyzy on December 13. In this interview the name of Ali Hasanov, but not Garalov, was mentioned. In a month and a half after that, Hasanov did not refute this fact.

The sanction for arrest was given on August 24 on the basis of a fabricated case of tax evasion amounting to 38,000 manat. The case was jointly conducted by the Ministry of Taxes and the Prosecutor General's Office. However, Ali Hasanov and the prosecutor's office made statements that this case is not of a political nature.

However, on September 11, Aliyev was released, and the criminal case was closed by the Ministry of Taxes on October 30. On November 2, the First Deputy Prosecutor General Rustam Usubov personally handed Mehman Aliyev a document on the confirmation by the Prosecutor General's Office of the decision of the Ministry of Taxes on the termination of the criminal case. The charge of tax evasion amounting to AZN 38,000 was abolished and subsequently confirmed in court as unlawful.

These events showed that the case was of a custom and political nature.-0-