Azerbaijani Ex-Minister Accused of Ordering Journalist’s Murder

A charge that ex-Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev ordered the killing of journalist Elmar Huseynov has unleashed fresh controversy about the government's 17-month-long murder investigation. Friends and relatives of the slain editor suspect that the accusation is designed to strengthen the government's case against Aliyev, who was imprisoned last year for allegedly plotting a coup.

The sensational accusation came during the trial of Haji Mammadov, a police lieutenant colonel and former officer in the Interior Ministry's criminal investigation department. Mammadov, and a group of associates, are charged with overseeing and implementing some 50 contract murders and kidnappings over the past decade. Aside from Mammadov, some 25 people stand accused, including several high-ranking Interior Ministry officers.

In a July 25 statement, Mammadov told the court members of the Interior Ministry murder-for-hire gang had killed Huseynov, then editor-in-chief of Monitor magazine, on the order of Farhad Aliyev. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The minister was arrested in October 2005, during Azerbaijan's parliamentary election campaign, on charges of financing a coup attempt against President Ilham Aliyev. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Mammadov didn't offer evidence that could substantiate his claim of Aliyev's involvement in Huseynov's murder. Nor did he give a reason for the ex-minister's supposed interest in eliminating the journalist. At a court session August 7, the ex-police officer requested that the court hold a closed session, saying he wanted to talk about "very important things," the Turan news agency reported. Observers speculated that Mammadov may have knowledge about the possible involvement of senior government officials in nefarious activities. Authorities did not immediately rule on Mammadov's request.

Farhad Aliyev, along with his lawyer, Elton Guliyev, vigorously denied the allegation. In an interview with EurasiaNet, Guliyev termed Mammadov's charge "ridiculous."

"There is a presumption of innocence and it has to be proved what Haji Mammadov says. We are confident that there is not any evidence. Indeed, he [Mammadov] could easily accuse any minister of ordering this crime," Guliyev said.

Such statements, the attorney alleged, are designed to put pressure on Aliyev, and to give Mammadov a chance to obtain more lenient punishment in return for testimony against the former minister. "During the last nine months, the investigation has been unable to find anything illegal about Farhad Aliyev's activities and now they [law-enforcement agencies] are trying to slander him by such shady methods."

At a July 26 press conference, Guliyev read out a statement written by Aliyev, who claimed that investigators had warned the ex-minister that he would be accused of murdering Huseynov if he did not plead guilty to the charge of plotting a government coup. "The accusation was so absurd I didn't take it seriously," Aliyev's statement reads. Aliyev also charged that his earlier support for the elimination of the Interior Ministry's Economic Crimes Department had led to problems with National Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov, who had headed the department at the time. "It is a great pity that as part of the continuing injustice towards me, the Ministry of National Security has made a secret deal with a notorious criminal," the ex-minister said.

So far, Mammadov's allegation has produced considerable scepticism both at home and abroad. In a July 28 statement, International Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon welcomed "new information about the investigation," but cautioned that "a confession without strong evidence does not represent substantive progress." Within Azerbaijan, doubts have been spurred by Mammadov's failure to cite the Huseynov murder in an earlier list of confessed crimes, and his failure to name as collaborators the two Georgian citizens (Tahir Khubanov and Teymuraz Aliyev) who Azerbaijani law enforcement officials allege carried out Huseynov's murder.

Huseynov's friends cite a meeting between the editor and AzPetrol Company President Rafik Aliyev, Farhad Aliyev's brother, a few months before the journalist's March 2005 murder as proof that the ex-minister has no connection to the crime. Rafik Aliyev is also in jail for supposedly assisting with his brother's alleged coup plans.

"Elmar told me that the meeting was very peaceful and friendly. He [Elmar] was pleased and did not mention any threats," Shakhbaz Khuduoglu, a friend of Huseynov, told EurasiaNet. "Therefore, I doubt that Haji Mammadov is telling the truth. A person who is going to order somebody's murder would never let his brother meet with the victim and provoke suspicions."

Government representatives have tended to treat Mammadov's charges with caution. An Interior Ministry spokesperson declined to comment to Turan until a verdict has been reached in Mammadov's trial. Meanwhile, Vugar Aliyev, a representative of the General Prosecutor's Office, told EurasiaNet that the allegation appears far from watertight.

"We need strong evidence that it was Haji Mammadov's group that killed Huseynov. Ultimately, we need to find the murder weapon," said Vugar Aliyev. "Of course, we would wish Mammadov's words to be true. Then we would not need to search for the journalist's murderers and the people who ordered this crime. However, it is not so simple."

Turkish investigators who assisted in the Huseynov murder investigation previously raised the possibility that Mammadov gang might have been involved in the journalist's killing. The investigators based this hypothesis on parallels in the Huseynov case and others in which Mammadov's group was involved in. Ultimately, however, Azerbaijani experts rejected the hypothesis.

Vugar Aliyev added that an investigation into Mammadov's claim will begin once the ex-police officer's trial ends.

Most members of the Elmar Huseynov Foundation, a public organization started by friends and relatives of the slain journalist, say that they will not accept Mammadov's claim in the absence of supporting evidence. However, one member, Eynulla Fatullayev, the former deputy editor of Huseynov's Monitor magazine and current editor-in-chief of Realniy Azerbaijan newspaper, thinks Mammadov may be telling the truth. In a July 28 editorial in Realniy Azerbaijan, Fatullayev, who has supported the coup charges against Farhad Aliyev, noted that Huseynov had criticized the ex-minister "sharply."

"We . . . always insist that it was the authorities who killed Elmar Huseynov. At the time of the murder, Farhad Aliyev was an influential minister, part of the authorities. . . . So I do not understand why all the opposition media now are doing their best to whitewash Farhad Aliyev," Fatullayev wrote.

Nonetheless, Huseynov family members say that they presently see no connection between Mammadov and the slain editor. "Let's find out whether Haji knows who Elmar is, where he lived and how he was killed. Elmar never talked or wrote anything about Mammadov. It is strange why Haji made his statement more than one year after his arrest. All this makes me think that it is part of the