Imran Aliyev – editor-in-chief of the https://meclis.info website 67 Date of arrest: 18 April 2024 Charge: Articles 192.2.2 (Illegal business, committed with extraction of income in the large scale); 192.2.3 (Illegal business, committed by organized group); 193-1.3.1 (Legalization of money or other property obtained by crime, committed by an organized group or a criminal organization (criminal association); 193-1.3.2 (Legalization of money or other property obtained by crime, committed in large amount); 206.4 (Smuggling, committed by the organized group); 213.2.1 (Evasion from payment of taxes, committed by the organized group); 320.1 (Fake of certificate or other official document giving the rights or releasing from duties, with a view of its use or selling of such document, as well as manufacturing in same purposes or selling of counterfeit state awards of the Azerbaijan Republic, stamps, seals, forms) and 320.2 (Use of obviously counterfeit documents) of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic.
On 19 April 2024, the Baku City Khatai District Court issued a ruling: to apply a preventive measure against Imran Aliyev in the form of arrest for a period of 2 months.
The period of detention in custody during the investigation has been subsequently extended times Place of detention: Pre-trial Detention Center № 1 at the Kyurdakhani settlement in Baku City Sabunchu District Conclusion In the morning of 18 April 2024, the website of the pro-government website Qafqazinfo.az it was published "New facts on the cases of "Abzas Media" and "Toplum TV", where it was stated that Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinj Vaqifqizi, the managers of the Internet publication "Abzas Media”, were arrested in November last year, they not only had close ties with the journalist and Head of the website "Meclis. info" Imran Aliyev but also the three of them allegedly smuggled and transported currency in Azerbaijan for their "dark deeds against the country's leadership".
The same evening Imran Aliyev went to the airport and when he had already passed the border control and been waiting to embark on a flight to Istanbul, he was suddenly detained by the masked individuals who handed him over to the police officers.
Imran Aliyev managed to inform his colleagues about his detention, after which he was taken to the Baku Main Police Department (MPD).
His flat has been searched the same night.
When Imran Aliyev was brought to the Khatai District Court on 19 April, the Court has already issued an order for his arrest for a period of two months whilst there was a preliminary investigation; there were traces of bruising on Aliyev’s body.
In the course of trial, Imran Aliyev said that at MPD he had been subjected to beatings and tortures with the use of electric current in order to testify aginst himself.
Aliyev's close relatives told the journalists that following the trial he had been taken to the Baku City Khatai District Police Department where he had been beaten again again for complaining about torture at the police station.Then he was forced to sign some document.
Close family members said that there had been signs of physical abuse on Imran Aliyev's body.
On 26 April 2024, in Berlin, there was a press conference with the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The German journalists raised the question concerning the arrested Imran Aliyev.
The issue angered Mr Ilham Aliyev and, later in the evening, Imran Aliyev was again subjected to beatings and, at the same time, another Article 206.3.1 was added to the original one 206.3.2, and from now on he is facing 10 to 15 years of imprisonment. 68
