At the trial in  Bakhtiyar Hajiyev case

On 18 October, a regular court hearing was held in the case of public activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, where documents were investigated.

The defendant himself reiterated that the case was a ‘political order’ and clarified a number of details that are presented in the case as ‘financial offences’ and ‘money laundering’.

The funds, which were transferred to an account for sending students abroad, were held in ‘NBC’ bank. This bank in Azerbaijan was later closed down and the Deposit Insurance Agency transferred the funds to ‘International Bank’.  Since there had been embezzlement in this bank and it did not enjoy the trust of depositors, Hajiyev transferred all the funds to ‘Bank Respublika’.

Besides, the investigation blocked Hajiyev’s personal funds, which he received from the Government of Azerbaijan by decision of the European Court of Human Rights.

These funds are of legal origin and there can be no question of money laundering or embezzlement, Hajiyev said. He asked the court to speed up the process so that the sessions could take place on all working days of the week.

The judge promised to consider the motion and scheduled the next hearing for 25 October.

*Bakhtiyar Hajiyev was arrested in December 2022 on charges of hooliganism and contempt of court.

On 16 June last year, the activist was charged with new charges related to financial irregularities – misappropriation of grants. He was also accused of illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, smuggling and use of forged documents.

In November of the same year, another charge was brought against him – non-payment of taxes.

Hajiyev himself and his colleagues consider the trial to be a political order, the reason for which was Hajiyev’s harsh criticism of the activities of the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry and, in particular, of Minister Vilayat Eyvazov himself.