Activist's wife  states that police  forced her to slander her husband

Baku/26.08.22/Turan: The ban on leaving the country for the wife of political emigrant Anar Aliyev, who was arrested in Azerbaijan on charges of drug trafficking, was challenged in court, lawyer Elchin Sadigov said.

Anar Aliyev, who received asylum in Germany on humanitarian grounds, arrived in Azerbaijan on July 8 with his wife and 2 children to visit Anar's sick father. However, on July 25 he was arrested. At the same time, his wife was forbidden to leave Azerbaijan. For this reason, she cannot return to continue her education and schooling for her children.

Lawyer Elchin Sadigov filed a complaint with the Nizami District Court of Baku in connection with the illegal ban on the activist's wife leaving the country.

“We applied to the court with a request to recognize the ban as illegal and cancel it,” Sadigov told Turan, noting that Anara Aliyeva was not involved in the investigation in any capacity - a witness, victim, or an accused. Consideration of the complaint is scheduled for September 1.

Anara Aliyeva herself told Turan that she was being blackmailed. “ The police in the  Nizami department offered  her to slander her husband and convince him to “confess to the crime,” and not to inform the press and international organizations about this case. In return, they promise to lift the ban on leaving the country. “I categorically rejected such an illegal transaction. After that, they threatened to involve me as a defendant,” said Anara Aliyeva.

She believes that her husband is being persecuted for participating in protests in Germany against violations of human rights in Azerbaijan. Legal expert Namizad Safarov, commenting on this case to Turan, called the ban on Aliyeva's departure unreasonable. "A ban on leaving the country, according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, can only be imposed on the accused. Not a single law of Azerbaijan contains rules on imposing restrictions on the exit of victims, witnesses or persons who can be called as witnesses. At the same time, , family members of the accused, according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, cannot be involved as witnesses to testify against him. This is contrary to the Constitution," Safarov explained.

The head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Elshad Hajiyev, told Turan earlier that Anar Aliyev was involved in connection with suspicion of committing a specific criminal act, the investigation is ongoing.”

He  said that the statements of the spouse of the arrested person were not true.—06B-