Relatives of Convicted Elchin Abdullayev about Arbitrariness of MNS Investigator

The lawyer and relatives of Elchin Abdullayev convicted in 2012 on charges of cyber crime complain about the arbitrariness of the former deputy chief of the Investigation Department of the MNS Sahib Alekperov and omissions of judges to close their eyes to these iniquities.

At today's press conference, they said that Elchin Abdullayev, Emin Zakiev, Rovshan Ganiev and Mikail Dadashly were arrested in February 2012 on charges of embezzling money from the bank accounts of other people by hacking.

Although the case was initiated under Article 177 (theft), the MNS investigator and his management did not refer the case to the Ministry of Interior investigation.

Despite the fact that all the prisoners are citizens of Azerbaijan, they were accused of creating a "transnational organized group." At the same time, the statement of the investigation on the participation of citizens of the United States, Russia and India in the group was in no way confirmed.

The lawyer said that the Ministry of National Security in reality extorted money from the businessman Rahman Musayev engaged in the trade of office equipment. To charge him with the creation of an organized criminal group, the National Security Ministry arrested the above-named persons that had contacts with Musayev.

Musayev was qualified as the leader of a criminal group, but later released from detention. As suggested by the lawyer, Musayev gave a bribe of 300 thousand manats.

At the same time, the court did not change the measure of restraint for all four arrested. That means "the leader" was released, while common group members were convicted, the lawyer said.

 "The investigation alleges that the defendants stole someone else's money, but in fact there are no victims or anyone complaining about the theft of their money," said the lawyer.

At the same time, the investigation "invented" two victims. The investigator Sahib Alekperov, who conspired with members of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, got a paper that Emin Abdullayev and Elchin Zakiev caused damage to the organization in 6,180 manat, and forced the family of the accused to pay this amount.

"Despite our demands, the International Bank of Azerbaijan has not submitted claims from foreign banks or individuals," said the lawyer.

The investigation without evidence accused Abdullayev of embezzling 140 thousand manat and Zakiev – of 40,000 manat and they were sentenced to 7 years and 2 months and 7 years in prison.

When the family of the accused expressed their willingness to repay the damage, the investigator offered to give the money to him, the lawyer said, and expressed regret that the three courts turned a blind eye to lawlessness of MNS.

The court confiscated Abdullayev’s apartment acquired in 2006, although he was charged with the crime of 2010.

Arrest was imposed on the Toyota Camry car that did not belong to Abdullayev. The investigation put pressure on the family members of Abdullayev.

"Sahib Alekperov threatened me when I was eight months pregnant in the office of the National Security Ministry in the presence of my husband. He told Elchin that if he did not give a confession, then I would go to jail, and the child will grow up without parents," said Abdullayev's wife.

The mother, the wife and the lawyer stated that they would appeal to President Ilham Aliyev with a request to assist in conducting the investigation and re-trial for the rehabilitation of the innocent prisoners.

The family and the lawyer asked the Attorney General to investigate the illegal actions of the MNS.

The lawyer also said that Sahib Alekperov was dismissed before Eldar Mahmudov was dismissed as head of the National Security Ministry, and he is involved in another criminal case. -06C-