MNS officers escaped penalty for tortures

Baku/24.09.22/Turan: On September 21, a group of high-ranking officers of the abolished Ministry of National Security was sentenced by the Baku Serious Crimes Court.

The main persons are three -  former head of the investigative department of the Ministry of National Security, Major General Movlam Shykhaliyev, who was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment; former head of the 2nd department of the investigative department, Colonel Vusal Alekperov, sentenced to 11 years and 2 months, and deputy head of the criminalistics department of the same department, Colonel Sahib Alekperov, sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, in 2008-2014, when Movlam Shikhaliyev held the position of head of the main investigative department; former head of the department Vusal Alekperov; deputy head of the preliminary investigation department Yasin Mammadov; deputy head of the department Sahib Alekperov as a part of organized group extorted large sums of money from businessmen.

It was established that the organized criminal group received money totaling 14 million 292.000 manats as a bribe; appropriated someone else's property in the amount of 5 million 77.000 manats, and also exceeded their authority and falsified evidence.

It ought to be noted that none of the previously convicted officers of the Interior Ministry has served the full term of imprisonment established by the court. The last premature releases of convicted ex-MNS officers were in May of this year. 

On May 27, 2022, President I. Aliyev signed a decree on pardon, according to which the former head of the department of the abolished Ministry of National Security, Major General Teymur Guliyev and other officials of the Ministry of National Security were released ahead of time.

However, other crimes of Major General Movlam Shikhaliyev, Colonels Yasin Mammadov, Vusal Alekperov and Sahib Alekperov remain unexplored. In an interview with Turan, political emigrant, historian Arif Yunusov said that these people beat testimony out of the defendants by torture.

"After the information about the sentencing, I think about this process and these inhumans. After all, they are perfectly familiar to me. I was tortured by Vusal Alekperov and Sahib Alekperov. There were four others, their subordinates, but I only know their names and did not see them among the convicts.

In the MNS  Sahib Alekperov was even called the "king of torture" by the staff. He has a lot of innocent lives ruined on his conscience.

And their boss Shykhaliev played the role of a "kind" investigator and after the torture he then asked me sympathetically – do I have any problems or complaints?".

A.Yunusov does not believe that the triumph of justice has come, since the criminals were not punished for the torture of prisoners, some of whom died as a result. Movlamov and Alekperov became victims of the games of their Minister Eldar Makhmudov, who has not yet been punished.

"Makhmudov not only secretly listened to the President and his family and collected dirt. After that, in December 2015, the Ministry of National Security was abolished, more than 500 of its employees were dismissed, more than 20 high-ranking officers convicted. And the former Minister is in the country, they say under house arrest.

Back in 2016, Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov said in an interview that all the necessary documents and evidence of Makhmudov's guilt had been collected and he was only waiting for the President's consent to arrest the ex-Minister. 

6 years have passed, a new chief is already at the head of the Prosecutor General's Office, and Eldar Makhmudov is sitting at home. And in fact, the switchmen are being tried and not for their real crimes," says Arif Yunusov.-0-