Shahin Shakhlinski, the head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in the Ural region, has been sentenced to nine years for violence against a government official. This was the second sentence he had received in 2026, bringing his total sentence to 24 years in prison.
Shikhlinski was detained in July 2025 with his son Mutvali Shikhlinski.
During the police raid, Mutvali Shikhlinski had allegedly backed his car into a police officer.
Later, Mutvali Shikhlinski was accused of using violence against a government official, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Shikhlinski’s detention came after the Safarov brothers’ arrest. During a police raid on Safarov’s brother's home in June 2025, two of them, Ziyaddin Safarov and Husein Safarov, were brutally beaten and died from their injuries.
Aytan Farhadova
The incident provoked a sharp reaction from Azerbaijan, with state-run media claiming ethnic Azerbaijanis were being targeted by the Russian state.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan has opened a criminal case in connection with the death of the Safarov brothers.
Immediately after the arrest, Russian citizens who were accused of drug smuggling and cyber fraud from Iran were detained in Baku.
The Azerbaijani side has not yet commented on Shikhlinski's sentence.
Aytan Farhadova
