J. Hasanly: the case against PFPA crumbles

During the last two weeks, I took part in the trials of the Baku Serious Crimes Court against Saleh Rustamly, Vidadi Rustamly, Babek Hasanli, Agil Ali Maharram, and Ruslan Nasirli. The main target of the trial is the PFPA and its chair Ali Kerimli. However, at the first court trial the "criminal case", concocted by the investigation based on false evidence, crumbled like a house of cards. The testimony of the defendants at the trial openly showed what rather mud the law enforcement agencies were dealing with and which torture laboratory they had created; but this is another topic.

This article aims to show the failure of accusations of slander of "dirty money" laundering brought against the PFPA and Ali Kerimli, and what false methods were used to concoct a charge on "financing from abroad" in the amount of 412 thousand dollars.

Probably you remember: in connection with the arrest of Saleh Rustamly and his nephew Vidadi Rustamly, on May 25 the Prosecutor General"s Office issued a statement that "every month Saleh Rustamly collected money from his former acquaintances from Azerbaijan who work in business structures. Since March 2016, 30 thousand dollars transferred to the account in a commercial bank in Moscow by Jeyhun Huseynov, Rauf Iskenderov, Heydar Ahmedov and Tural Mehdikhanov, engaged in illegal transfers of currency transactions in Baku, were delivered to Vidadi Rustamly.

"So what did the investigation do? Jeyhun Huseynov, Rauf Iskenderov, Heydar Ahmedov and Tural Mehdikhanov, involved in illegal currency transfer operations, whose names are mentioned in a statement that provided the delivery of money to Vidadi Rustamly, "sang like nightingales" in the court.

That is, persons engaged in illegal currency transactions, illegal banking activities and tax evaders act as witnesses in court, and the Karabakh veteran, second group disabled Babek Hasanli, who took from Vidadi Rustamli and transferred Ali Karimli 1,100 manat for political prisoners, appeared before the court as the accused.

It turns out that the investigation has colluded with an organized criminal group engaged in illegal banking activities, smuggling currency in order to "collect" these 412 thousand dollars of "dirty money" to put charges against PFPA and Ali Karimli. In return, they promised to release the criminal group from responsibility and get a receipt of 412 thousand dollars.

Of course, without top patrons no one in this country will be able to smuggle. During the trial, it became clear that these people donated money sent from Russia not only to Vidadi Rustamly, but also to many others.

For some reason, to the question of a lawyer, the smuggling-bankers answer that they left with them only a receipt of the money transferred to Vidadi Rustamly; and for greater reality, they attached other receipts in order to inflate the amount belonging to Vidadi Rustamly for personal needs and bring it to 412,000.

Despite all attempts of the judge to save these "bankers" and control, their monosyllabic answers like "I don't know," "I don't remember"; it was still not possible to hide an awl in a sack.

Vidadi Rustamly told about many things during cross-examination. What is the truth? Vidadi said that his relatives in Russia sent him $175,000 to buy a house. He received this money from Tural Mehdikhanov, and in the same week for this sum, he bought an apartment of 220 square meters in Baku. The address of the apartment, the number, the floor, the documents, and a receipt for the money paid are known. What does this have to do with PFPA, Ali Kerimli?

Then Vidadi Rustamly, in the same manner, received from his relatives living in Russia 30 thousand for repairs and 50 thousand for furniture; and the investigation drew up an act for 255 thousand dollars received for personal needs as "financing from abroad" by PFPA and Ali Kerimli.

However, due to the fact that it was not possible to get the amount of 412 thousand dollars, Vidadi Rustamly was forced under a torture to sign receipts for receiving money from these "bankers" at various times for an amount of about 5 thousand. All this was proved during testimony at the trial, answers to the questions of lawyers and cross confrontation.

Therefore, based on the bills and evidence obtained under torture, including an electric current, the investigative bodies prepared a completely fabricated false and slanderous accusation against PFPA and Ali Kerimli, which failed at the very first court session, and was revealed.

It became clear that the investigators had committed a serious violation of the law, falsifying the facts, forcing people under torture to confess to actions they did not commit. With all the evidence of the falsification of the investigation, the judges still keep silence, and the state prosecutor pretends not to notice anything.

During the trial, it turned out that some of our compatriots living in Russia had raised money to help political prisoners. How much? 1000 AZN per month, that is, 20-22 AZN. They confirmed it in their testimonies at court trials.

In total, the amount of money collected for these purposes is about 2 thousand dollars. Saleh Rustamli added the same amount of money from his legitimate business and for three or four years he transferred to the families of political prisoner"s money, the total amount of which was 5 thousand dollars.

It turns out that for two years the whole world is talking about the theft of the Azerbaijani authorities for 3 billion dollars, about the case "Azerbaijan Laundromat", but the country's law enforcement agencies speak bout 5-6 thousand dollars sent during three years to families of political prisoners. By bringing the amount to 412 thousand dollars through falsified receipts, the investigative agencies reveal "dirty money." This is similar to the operation "the bomb" of the late Kerbalai Zal.