Azerbaijan’s State Security Service (DTX) has detained the chair of the opposition Popular Front Party (PFP), Ali Karimli, along with several other party members. Pro-government media outlets have linked the detentions to the treason case against Ramiz Mehdiyev, the former head of the Presidential Administration and an ally of former President Heydar Aliyev.
Karmili was detained on Saturday; that same day, his house was also raided by DTX.
The pro-government media outlet APA has reported that during the raid, DTX seized a letter from Mehdiyev containing instructions for a coup d'état.
Mehdiyev was himself detained in October on charges of committing actions aimed at seizing state power, high treason, and the legalisation of property obtained by criminal means. The courts have remanded him to four months of house arrest as part of the criminal investigation.
Aytan Farhadova
On Monday, the Sabail District Court accused Karimli of committing actions aimed at the violent seizure of power and the violent change of the constitutional order of the state, subsequently remanding him to two months and 15 days in pretrial detention.
PFP member Mammad Ibrahim was also detained on Saturday — during a raid on his house, the DTX seized his laptop and mobile phones.
The pro-government outlet Qafqazinfo wrote that Ibrahim was charged under the same criminal article as Karimli on Monday and remanded to the same period of time in pre-trial detention.
Besides Karimli and Ibrahim, PFP members Faig Amirli and Ruslan Amirli (of no relation to each other), and former PFP member Saleh Rustamli were briefly detained. All were released after questioning.
Separately, RFE/RL has reported that Fariz Alizada, the chair of the PFP’s Sabunchu district branch, left his home on 28 November, and has not been heard from since.
On Sunday, the PFP shared a statement strongly condemning the next ‘large-scale campaign of repression launched by the family government’, adding that it would continue its work despite the repressions.
The Muslim Unity Movement also shared a statement, demanding Karimli’s release as well as other detainees..
‘The slandering of the innocent people, which has turned the country into a prison, must stop!’, the statement read.
A wider opposition crackdown
Other opposition figures not associated with the PFP were also targeted over the weekend.
On the same Saturday, Gultakin Hacibayli, a member of the opposition National Council, was detained in Istanbul. She is currently awaiting deportation to Azerbaijan.
The National Council was established as an opposition coalition in May 2013 ahead of that year’s presidential elections. It includes the PFP, Musavat, Eldar Namazov’s movement, and the Liberal Party of Azerbaijan.
Hajibayli wrote on social media that she had arrived in Turkey on 25 September, and that she has a two-year residence permit.
‘No legal basis was provided for my detention, and this process was carried out at the request of the Azerbaijani government’, Hajibayli claimed.
Separately, historian Jamil Hasanli, the head of the National Council, was questioned as a witness in the case against Mehdiyev.
Prior to the questioning, Hasanli wrote on social media that it was possible his house would be searched and false documents or funds planted.
‘If any suspicious documents or funds are discovered, know that they are counterfeit […] They can arrest us whenever they want. I'm either at home or at the Akhundov Library. They shouldn't look for me anywhere else’, Hasanli wrote.
Later that same day, he wrote about how he was interrogated by DTX for over three hours.
‘I responded to the question regarding the Mehdiyev case and interviewed. They then asked about the Forum of Intelligentsia, the National Council, the Union of Russian Billionaires, the 2013 presidential elections, my run for president, and other matters. They frequently asked how the Forum of Intelligentsia and the National Council were funded. I said that there was funding and told them where it came from’.
Headlines across pro-government media outlets appear to be linking Karmili, Mehdiyev, and ‘suspicious’ Russian transactions that began in 2012–2013, citing the founding of the Union of Russian Azerbaijanis, known in Russia as the Union of Billionaires. As evidence, Qafqazinfo published a photo showing Karimli, Hasanli, and Rustam Ibrahimbayov, who founded the alleged organisation.
Hasanli stated on Facebook, however, that while an attempt was made in 2013 to create a Union of Russian–Azerbaijani Organisations, no such group ever actually existed or was registered. He further claimed that the photograph shown was taken in 2016, not 2013, after Ibrahimbayov traveled to Baku to attend his brother’s funeral.
Aytan Farhadova
