Three detained after Baku house demolished with resident still inside

On 27 March, the construction company Melissa Group demolished a house in Baku’s Yasamal district while a resident was still inside. After the footage of the incident spread on social media, the foreman and driver of the excavator carrying out the demolition work were detained, in addition to the head of the construction company.

In the footage shared online, a person is seen shouting and trying to stop the excavator from inside the house. After the excavator damaged the balcony on two sides of the house, the demolition was stopped.

The video received many comments online, and several hours later, the pro-government media outlet OXU.az shared the news that the foreman and driver of the excavator of the company carrying out the demolition work had been detained.

OXU.az reported that Arzuman Murtuzayev, a representative of FEBA Construction Company, a part of the Melissa Group construction conglomerate, claims that the company did not give any orders regarding the incident, and that the workers did it by mistake.

‘The worker we signed the contract with made a mistake and did not know that anyone lived there. There were 55 houses in this area, 54 of which were resettled with consent. We also offered Habib Hajiyev [the owner of the house] ₼651,000 ($380,000), which is much more than the market price. He wants about ₼2 million ($1.2 million)’.

Elara Hajiyeva, Hajiyev’s wife, told Oxu.az that Murtuzayev's statement was ‘a blatant lie’.

‘They didn't come to negotiate with us at all. The company representatives are deliberately lying. The claim that they allegedly offered us ₼651,000 is also untrue. Only through a notification letter were we offered just ₼173,000 ($100,000),’ she added.

On Friday, another pro-government media outlet, APA, wrote that Galib Mammadov, the head of a construction company, was also detained.

According to Baku’s Main Department of Architecture and Urban Development, which inspected the area, all the demolition work was carried out without the appropriate permit. Since the demolition was carried out in violation of the requirements of the current legislation, it was stopped and documented by the department, together with the relevant institutions. However Murtuzayev, told OXU.az that they had demolished dozens of houses up until Thursday in the same area.

The demolition of houses without permission from the owners or a court order has happened before in Azerbaijan. In February, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) fined the Azerbaijani government approximately €1.7 million ($1.8 million) for illegally demolishing a number of properties in central Baku in 2010 in order to create a new park.

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