War of words between Azerbaijan, US Embassy in Baku
Azerbaijan officials have criticised a statement from the US Embassy in Azerbaijan, leading to further accusations from both sides.
Ismayil Mammadov, an employee of the Patrol Service of the Police Department, allegedly killed his wife, 27-year-old Khanim Mammadova, when she came to the police station to lodge a complaint about an incident of domestic violence.
The alleged murder took place at the Nizami District Police Office in Baku on 30 September. Mammadov, who worked at the station, allegedly used his service weapon in the shooting.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs Mammadov ‘received information that his wife, Khanim Mammadova, went to the 24th Police Department to complain about a family dispute’.
‘He immediately went to the department and shot and killed Ms. Mammadova’, the statement reads.
Footage aired on Azad Azerbaycan, a local television channel, appeared to confirm that the two young Mammadov children were present during the shooting.
Mammadova’s brother, Agil Aliyev, told Report.az that Mammadov ‘beat my sister with a truncheon’ the day before the killing.
He said that the day of the shooting Mammadova had taken their two children and had gone to the police station to file an official complaint. When Mammadov arrived shortly thereafter he reportedly told station employees that ‘he had calmed down and wanted to see his children’.
‘He shot and killed my sister in front of her two young children’, Aliyev said.
Aliyev added that the two children are currently staying with him and his family.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, a criminal case of ‘premeditated murder with special crutely’ has been launched. Mammadov currently has the status of a suspect.