New Details in Murder Case of Elmar Huseynov

Baku/03.03.21/Turan: OCCRP, an international project uniting investigative journalists, released a report on Wednesday on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the murder of the editor-in-chief of the Azerbaijani Monitor magazine Elmar Huseynov.

The authors point out that the murder of the journalist on March 2, 2005 caused a great international resonance and attracted the attention of the special services of the West, and in particular the United States.

According to OCCRP, the FBI attaché attached to the case was worried that investigators were focusing on the only version - the preparation of the crime abroad. The article also draws attention to the fact that although the murder suspects live in Georgia, no one "bothers" them.

The authors come to the conclusion that the Azerbaijani government froze the investigation long ago and provided the journalist's family with incorrect information.

The study noted that President Ilham Aliyev, who called the murder of Huseynov "a black spot in the history of Azerbaijan," once turned to US Ambassador Rino Harnish with a request to support the investigation by the US FBI.

However, the initial concentration of the investigation on a single version made the subsequent investigation difficult.

The authorities did not want to associate the murder of Huseynov with his journalistic activities and stated that it was planned from abroad with the aim of harming Azerbaijan and destabilizing the situation.

In the FBI report for 2005-2008 this crime is called an event that can overthrow the government.

FBI legal attaché Brian Paarmann said that the opportunity to solve the murder was missed from the very beginning. The Azerbaijani police did not even ensure the inviolability of the murder site.

On the day of Huseynov's murder, the residential block in which he lived was darker than usual, since the electric lamp was unscrewed from the cork. Azerbaijani investigators did not conduct an examination of the prints on the lamp.

Paarmann also said that no samples were taken from under his nails during Huseynov's autopsy. Usually, in such cases, certain biomaterial can remain under the victim's nails.

The FBI report also indicated that, despite the indicated flaws in the investigation, there was sufficient evidence.

A Baikal PSM 5.45mm semi-automatic pistol was found near the crime scene. Serial numbers have been preserved on Russian-made weapons. A hat was found nearby. All this gave the FBI specialists reason to believe that the murder was committed hastily and carelessly. However, the Azerbaijani authorities were convinced that the crime was committed by a "professional".

According to Paarmann, a professional assassin should have erased all serial numbers and other marks from the weapon.

Among the countries from which the order for the murder could have originated, the Azerbaijani authorities named Armenia, Russia and Iran. In their opinion, the customers set themselves the goal of disrupting stability in Azerbaijan.

In the second month of the investigation, the Azerbaijani authorities identified two suspects - Georgian citizens Tahir Khubanov and Teymuraz Aliyev. Shortly before the murder, they rented an apartment near the house where Huseynov lived. Two pillowcases and clothes were taken from this apartment.

The genetic materials from these things, as found by the FBI, coincided with the material found on the hat, which was found along with the pistol. However, these suspects were not associated with Huseynov's professional activities and their motives remained unclear.

Despite the announcement of the suspects on the wanted list, the authorities did not want their photos to be published on the Internet. Law enforcers did not see this as a "need".

Teimuraz Aliyev was found in Georgia in 2006 and interrogated there.

Later, during the trial of former Interior Ministry officers Haji Mammadov, who said that Huseynov was killed by his group, the situation became even more confused.

In 2007, the FBI offered to interrogate Teymuraz Aliyev and Tahir Khubanov through a polygraph (lie detector). The FBI attaché sent a letter about this to the then head of the Ministry of National Security, Eldar Mahmudov.

In a letter from the FBI to US Ambassador Ann Derse, it was said that cooperation with Azerbaijan on the issue of the polygraph had stalled, and then completely stalled.

In September 2008, the head of the Ministry of National Security told the FBI attaché that the investigation had reached an impasse, and there was no need for further cooperation with the FBI. Although the Ministry of National Security all this time assured the family of the deceased that "an active investigation is underway."

As OCCRP writes, Azerbaijan appealed to Georgia in 2005 to extradite Aliyev and Khubanov.

However, the deputy prosecutor general wrote in response that the investigation into them should be conducted within the jurisdiction of Georgia.

The authors of the report believe that if Azerbaijan transferred the case to Georgia, then Teymuraz Aliyev would probably be convicted. The documents also show that a preliminary investigation was even launched in Georgia at that time. It is also indicated that Azerbaijan was not persistent in extraditing the alleged killers.

Knut Rognlien, the lawyer of the journalist's wife Rushania Huseynova at the ECHR, noted in a letter to the European Court that the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry could not interrogate the suspects because they were abroad and were foreigners. In fact, this was due to a desire to avoid troubling questions.

The FBI report also indicates that the Azerbaijani authorities tried to avoid sensitive issues from the very beginning of the investigation. Rognlien claims that if Aliyev and Khubanov were interrogated, they would be faced with questions about possible connections with the Azerbaijani authorities and the motives for the murder. —06D-