Sardar Babayev was arrested "because of Khamenei" - J.Shafiyev

Baku/27.10.21/Turan: The criminal charges brought against the theologian and editor-in-chief of maide.az website Sardar Babayev (Hajihasanli) have been fabricated. This is said in a statement by a member of the Association of Spiritual Figures of Azerbaijan, theologian Jalal Shafiyev.

He believes that the real reason for Babayev's arrest is the publication of speeches and books of Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Khamenei on his website maide.az.

According to Shafiyev, Babayev is the first CIS student to receive a special religious headdress personally from Khamenei.

In addition, Babayev got permission to perform certain religious duties personally from Khamenei as a mujtahid (the highest academic degree in Islam that allows one to give interpretations on matters of religion).

Shafiyev points out that Babayev was arrested due to Khamenei's well-known statement regarding tensions in Azerbaijan-Iran relations.

Shafiyev holds that Babayev's arrest is a step directed against Khamenei.

Note that Babayev was detained on October 19. It transpired later that he was criminally charged under Article 274 (treason) of the Criminal Code.

Several other Shiite theologians were briefly detained over the past week. -06D-