Interior Ministry Confirms Arrest of Huseyn Abdullayev (UPDATED)

Baku / 23.04.18 / Turan: The former MP Huseyn Abdullayev was detained in Turkey and taken to Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry said.

Abdullayev was detained through the Interpol, delivered to Baku and handed over to the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Taxes.

In 2012, a criminal case was instituted against him on charges of tax evasion on a large scale (213.2.2) and he was put on the wanted list.

Recall that Abdullayev received asylum in Germany a few years ago. In Azerbaijan, he had numerous businesses, which were taken away from him.

Abdullayev's conflict with the authorities began after he started to actively finance several journalists, publishing sharp criticism of the government. The apogee of the conflict was Abdullayev's fight with MP Fazail Agamaly in parliament in 2007, after which he was deprived of his MP mandate, and after a while left the country.

While abroad, he published calls to fight the ruling regime. -016B-

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2018 April 23 (Monday) 00:56:36

Media Report on Detention and Extradition of Huseyn Abdullayev to Azerbaijan

Baku / 23.04.18 / Turan: Late on the evening of April 22, in a number of local media and social networks on the Internet, information appeared about the detention of the Azerbaijani businessman Huseyn Abdullayev in Turkey. According to the same sources, Abdullayev has already been extradited to Azerbaijan, where he was put on the wanted list for a tax charge. The official bodies have not confirmed the confirmation yet.

The man left Azerbaijan at the end of 2012 and received political asylum in Germany. In the past the businessman was close to the ruling regime of Azerbaijan and is better known by the nickname Guska. Bullies from Guska's security service often participated in the dispersal of opposition rallies.

In 2005, Abdullayev was elected to the parliament of Azerbaijan and began to criticize individual officials. In March 2007, while criticizing the Cabinet during the report of Prime Minister Arthur Rasizadeh, MP Fazail Agamali provoked him to a fight. Three days later, immunity was removed from Abdullayev, and he was arrested on charges of hooliganism. In May 2007, the court sentenced him to 2 years' imprisonment conditionally.

After his release, Abdullayev founded the public association Oguz Eli (Oguz People). At the end of 2012, Abdullayev left for Germany.

In May 2013, Abdullayev wrote a protest song Susma (Do Not Be Silent), which contained a call for protests against the government of Azerbaijan. In July, a criminal case was opened against him on charges of not paying taxes and illegal entrepreneurship and he was put on the wanted list. After that, Abdullayev appealed to the German authorities for granting him political asylum, and he received it.

On the eve of the presidential elections of 2018, Abdullayev made harsh criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities.

If the information about Abdullayev's arrest is reliable, then the actions of law enforcement agencies can lead to another international scandal, as was the case with the kidnapping of the journalist Afgan Mukhtarly in Tbilisi and the detention of another journalist Fikret Huseynli in Ukraine.

International legal norms prohibit the extradition of persons granted political asylum to a country where they are persecuted.

In Azerbaijan, there was already a case when Saday Nazarov, associate of ex-Premier Suret Huseynov, who was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic, was arrested in Baku in 2015, when he came to visit his seriously ill father. A month later, he was released after intervention by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local and international human rights organizations. -06D--