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A criminal gang inside the Security Ministry of Azerbaijan, led by the former Minister Eldar Mahmudov, strengthened control over the political and religious opposition in an attempt to bolster its place in authority, Minval.az reports.

A source from pro-government circles told the website that achieving a control over the political opposition was not an easy task for Mahmudov as other serious players, like the Presidential Administration and oligarchs standing close to the authorities, also acted in that sphere. The second lever, however, the religious opposition and religious radicals, were under the total control of the ministry – a unique lever for the ministerial gang to make ongoing threats to the ruling elite and demonstrate its own independence.

According to Minval.az, it was widely known that the ties with radical Wahhabis were a secret weapon for the former leadership of the Security Ministry and that the ministerial officers demanded huge sums of money from people who financed representatives of religious movements or from their entrepreneur and official relatives by blackmailing and intimidating them. Baku mayor Hajibala Abutalibov’s son, Israfil Abutalibov, is Wahhabi; he joined the movement abroad, after which he became abnormal and got divorced. He was even the main sponsor of the Azerbaijani Wahhabis.

“The Security Ministry was naturally well-aware of the fact. Still, the special officers working in the field confined themselves only to fact-finding on Mahmudov’s instruction. They held Abutalibov’s son under their control yet they did not even attempt to prevent his whims and law violations. On the contrary, they brought their own people into his close surroundings creating the chance for a further ‘radicalisation.’ These people helped to provide close ties between Abutalibov’s son and his radical coreligionists, as well as facilitate his financial support to the radical sect,” Minval.az highlights.

After a while, the criminal gang of the Ministry showed the facts about Israfil Abitallibov’s ties with the Wahhabis to his father, Baku mayor, and offered him two variants: either they would arrest his son, which would disgrace him and deprive of the post, or he had to obey to the Ministry. “It was exactly after this operation that Eldar Mahmudov’s company, Crystal LTD, as well as those of his partner Jahangir Hajiyev, the chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, constructed luxury buildings in various parts of the capital. Notably, they were conducted without any documents, permissions and checks,” the website notes.

As for Israfil Abutalibov, the Ministry kept its promise and helped him leave the country. According to the report, he lives in Turkey and occasionally visits Baku to meet his fellow believers and keep an eye on his business. He was also the one standing behind Alikhan Musayev’s – a radical Wahhabi standing close to him – appointing as a chief imam of the mosque after Heydar Aliyev constructed on presidential order.

In another instance, a similar operation was conducted against a high-ranking customs official. Those in authority know that the official’s family members are believers, lead a religious way of life and even wear hijabs. Still, the Security Ministry was more concerned in the official’s imports of famous brands and his business network in the field, as well as in that he openly spent his money on charity. The entrepreneur, however, ended up in being accused of funding the “IS.” An unhampered import of expensive cars, exclusive wines and many other products of Mahmudov was provided for the entrepreneur after blackmail.

Moreover, measures were taken against those trying to speak a word over the business networks co-owned the Wahhabis. “These are just episodic cases of the arbitrariness in the control over the religious opposition; it is just the tip of the iceberg,” Minval.az points out.
In another article, the website highlights that before Mahmudov’s dismissal, the prevailing opinion was that the most high-profile arrests on financial issues would take place in the Transport Ministry. Checks had reportedly taken up all the departments of the Ministry.

Among finance-related issues, the investigation of the accident in the Athletes’ village a day before the opening of the First European Games in Baku is still underway. A bus had drove off the traffic lane and hit three Austrian synchronised swimmers walking along the sidewalk. Reportedly, one million manats were allocated for the trainings of the drivers specially chosen for the European Games. Their biographies were checked, however, the process was not conducted carefully. The biography of the driver who hit the Austrian athletes, Veli Ahmadov, had not been studied cautiously enough. After the accident, he turned out to have faced a criminal case because of a car crash. Moreover, bribes from 500 to 1000 manats were reportedly taken from the employed drivers.

Trend agency reports that the Chief of the Main department for transport and energetics security of the Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan, Major General Akif Chovdarov, was dismissed and sent to the reserve.

According to Haqqin.az, Chovdarov played the role of the éminence grise in the MNS being the former minister’s most trusted person. He secretly carried out the functions of the minister’s cashier and headed the criminal financial gang created by Mahmudov. Haqqin.az cites the governmental website Strateg.az reporting that Chovdarov can be arrested in the near future. Sources from inside the ministry say that many of the arrested personnel of agency reported during the interrogations that they received orders to carry out unlawful actions directly from General Chovdarov.

Reportedly, many entrepreneurs, whose names are not revealed on safety concerns, appealed to the Presidential Administration and Prosecutor General’s Office saying that general Chovdarov intimidated them and seized real estates and millions of sums of money. According to the information of the website, an investigation of the ministry’s secret gang – which racketeered and robbed the entrepreneurs – exposed Chovdarov’s own gang. The latter was engaged in kidnapping entrepreneurs and detaining them in its own jail unrelated to the MNS in order to prevent information leaks. The entrepreneurs who had relatives among high-ranking officials were especially frequent prisoners there. Defaming materials obtained with the help of surveillance were displayed to the detainees in the jail. The blackmailers demanded huge sums of money from them to promise they would not publish the materials. The entrepreneurs fulfilled all the demands in fear and without even guessing what organisation had detained them.

According to the information, Chovdarov enjoyed not only the help of his subordinates from inside the ministry, but also of representatives of the criminal underworld in Georgia and Russia. Actually, Chovdarov’s gang in the ministry operated with criminal enterprises.

Haqqin.az also reports that 80 of the former minister’s relatives and friends were employed in the system of the state security of Azerbaijan, and are now fired. According to Minval.az, preparations for Mahmudov’s arrest are underway with undeniable proofs of his crimes compiled after his closest people’s arrests. The website highlights that the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, has recently increased criticism of his team in his speeches. There is an impression that he does that to fill the gap created after the “weakening” of the opposition – a new technology in the governing system of the country, Minval.az notes.

In another article, Minval.az writes that discussions about who will become a new speaker in the parliament followed the polls. An informed source told the website that Ogtay Asadov, the current speaker, will leave his post because of his close ties with the former security minister.

The website also reports that groups inside the authority circles have started a scramble for the post of Security Minister of the country. The Nakhijevan clan is currently active, as it does not want the post to go to “other hands.”

On 17 October 2015, President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, signed a decree to dismiss the Minister of National Security, Eldar Mahmudov Ahmad oglu, from his post. Reportedly, an investigation revealed that a group of high-ranking officials had been engaged in criminal actions against entrepreneurs for a long period and gained millions. The activities of the Azerbaijani business elite and well-known representatives of medium-sized business were surveilled with audio spying equipment on Minister Eldar Makhmudov’s order. The MNS generals took an active part in the process. Later, discrediting material was specially filed against those businesspersons, and consequently, the snatch squad of the MNS conducted illegal arrests of businesspeople on the leadership’s order.
Vidadi Zeynalov, the head of the office of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, was arrested and Beytullah Huyseynov, former CEO of the Baku Telephone Connection ltd, was detained in connection with the case.