Gahraman Mammadov, a former senior assistant to the military attaché of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the US, has been sentenced to six years in prison for smuggling by the Baku Military Court. He was originally arrested by the State Security Service (DTX) in November 2024 in Istanbul, and was found to be in possession of 70 kilogrammes of gold bars.
According to the pro-government media outlet Qafqazinfo, the gold seized with Mammadov at Istanbul Airport was worth over ₼10.3 million ($6 million). The outlet wrote that the gold had been smuggled between various countries.
According to RFE/RL, Mammadov has disputed the charges, calling them ‘unfounded’. He also objected to being tried in Baku for a crime allegedly committed outside of Azerbaijan.
According to the indictment, Mammadov alleged that he arrived in Turkey from the US on 22 November 2024.
‘In Istanbul he arranged a meeting with another Azerbaijani Anar Gasimov. On the same day, Gasimov arrived from the United Arab Emirates and left a bag containing gold bars he had brought with him in a storage locker outside the airport customs checkpoint’, RFE/RL reported.
Mammadov, using his diplomatic passport, did not declare the gold, and then, while traveling by taxi to a meeting with Gasimov at an Istanbul hotel, was detained by law enforcement.
RFE/RL wrote that according to the indictment another bag containing 14 kilogrammes of gold bars, which had not been cleared customs, was found in the airport storage locker.
Human rights defender Yalchin Imanov has criticised Monday’s decision to sentence Mammadov to six years in prison, comparing the sentences given to the staff of independent media outlet AbzasMedia, who received seven-and-a-half years to nine years.
‘Domestic law guarantees equal rights and freedoms for all and prohibits restrictions on human and civil rights, including those of political or other groups’, he told OC Media.
‘However, due to the scale of the smuggling, the former government official and employee received a shorter sentence. In other words, this is a clear example of a discriminatory state that discriminates against its citizens based on their political views and affiliations, which is prohibited by both Azerbaijan’s domestic law and national legislation and international conventions to which Azerbaijan is a party, in particular Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights’.
Aytan Farhadova
