Amaliya Valieva has appealed to the court system after Azerbaijani police allegedly forced her to sign over her apartment to the daughter of the President of the National Academy of Sciences. Valieva has been accused of robbing the woman in Germany.
The first court hearing will be held on 8 December in the Nasimi District Court.
The case originates from June earlier this year. Lawyer Gulnara Khudabakhishova told OC Media that Valieva called her on 3 June, saying that she had been stopped at the Baku airport.
‘When I arrived at the airport I met […] representatives of the Interior Ministry. They did not disclose to me their reason for stopping [Valieva] and she remained forcibly seated in their car’, Khudabakhishova said.
She noted that the car took Valieva to the Interior Ministry’s Department of Organised Criminal Crime. When Khudabakhishova demanded to meet with her client, she was refused.
‘They said that if I did not leave the room voluntarily they would kick me out. My phone also was taken’, she said.
Upon her release several hours later, Valieva told Khudabakhishova that she had been interrogated based on a request from Gunay Masimova, a daughter of Isa Habibbayli, the President of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Science.
‘I demanded that we be provided with Masimova’s complaint. But the police did not present this document because a criminal case regarding this issue was not opened’, Khudabakhishova said, adding that Valieva’s subsequent travel ban was illegal.
Khudabakhishova told OC Media that Valieva and Masimova had known each other for many years. In April 2024, Masimova asked Valieva to help her open a bank account in Fürth, Germany
‘Masimova deposited her jewellery to a safety deposit box and $360,000 to the account and the key [to the box] was given to her. During this process, Valieva’s son’s friend, Firudin Mahmudov, was also there. In January 2025, Masimova opened her safety deposit box and discovered that it had been emptied’, Khudabakhishova said.
Following this, Valieva’s husband, Alasgar Valiev, learned that Mahmudov had pawned around $29,000 in gold jewelry. Although Valiev then told Masimova this and recovered the jewelry to return to her, Masimova was not satisfied, leading her to request Valieva’s detention at the airport.
Masimova then demanded Valieva’s apartment located on Heydar Aliyeva Avenue in Baku. The house deed was transferred to Masimova on 16 July, after which Valieva’s travel ban was lifted.
At the same time, however, Valiev requested that German police open an investigation, presenting them with the jewelry.
Khudabakhishova stressed that a criminal case should only be opened where the crime occurred — in this case Germany. She added that another issue is that one criminal case cannot be opened in two places, thereby making the Azerbaijani one illegal.
Aytan Farhadova
