The former head of Azerbaijan’s presidential administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev, has been charged with actions aimed at seizing state power, high treason, and the legalisation of property obtained by criminal means. He has been remanded to four months of house arrest as part of a criminal investigation.
According to pro-government media outlet APA, the decision was granted by the Sabail District Court of Baku on Tuesday.
‘The court granted the motion against him and was [he] charged with particularly serious crimes, and placed under house arrest for four months’, APA wrote.
The criminal investigation is being conducted by the State Security Service — Mehdiyev is a member of the government’s Security Council, headed by President Ilham Aliyev.
The Azerbaijan opposition named Mehdiyev ‘a grey cardinal’ who had worked many years with the former President Heydar Aliyev during the Soviet era as well as during Aliyev’s rise to power.
During his period as head of the Presidential Administration 1995-2019, he is believed to have been responsible for cracking down on civil society and independent journalism.
During a speech in 2014, he referred to civil society and independent journalists as a ‘fifth column’, signalling the beginning of a crackdown that led to the closure of RFE/RL’s offices in Azerbaijan, the arrest of investigative journalist Khadija Ismayil, the adoption of law limiting the activities of NGOs, and the launch of a criminal case against independent media outlet Meydan TV September 2015, banning its journalists from covering Azerbaijan for four years.
Mehdiyev was dissmissed in 2019 by Aliyev, who explained that he wanted to ‘give way to the younger generation’. At the time, Aliyev additionally awarded him with the Order of Heydar Aliyev.
During the award ceremony Aliyev said that he remembered the period when Mehdiyev worked with his father, adding that Heydar Aliyev was ‘demanding in the selection of personnel and had a number of very serious criteria’. He additionally stated that Mehdiyev had gained all of his previous positions thanks to his father.
During this meeting Mehdiyev said that he spent 54 years of his life in public service, having served 29 of which under Heydar Aliyev and 16 under Ilham Aliyev.
Later, Mehdiyev was appointed as the president of the National Academy of Science, but resigned from that post in 2022.
After being charged, pro-government media outlet APA reported that Mehdiyev may be stripped of his state awards and distinctions, with that Arif Rahimzada, chair of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party’s Veterans’ Council, saying Mehdiyev will be expelled from the party.
‘Ramiz Mehdiyev cannot remain a member of either the New Azerbaijan Party or the New Azerbaijan Party’s Veterans' Council. A charged person cannot remain a party member’, Rahimzada said.
Yousef Bardouka
