Date of Birth: 5 May 1966
Detained Since: 12 July 2018
Affiliation: No formal political affiliation; electrician at the Ganja Automobile Plant and private resident of Ganja; prosecuted in connection with the 2018 Ganja case involving Yunis Safarov.

Charges:

• Attempted aggravated murder (Arts. 29, 120.2.1, 120.2.3, 120.2.4, 120.2.7 and 120.2.11)
• Preparation for terrorism (Arts. 28, 214.2.1, 214.2.3 and 214.2.6)
• Terrorism committed by an organized group, with weapons and on grounds of religious hostility, radicalism or fanaticism (Arts. 214.2.1, 214.2.3 and 214.2.6)
• Illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of firearms, ammunition, explosives or explosive devices by an organized group (Art. 228.3)
• Preparation for an attack on the life of a State or public figure (Arts. 28 and 277)
• Attack on the life of a State or public figure (Art. 277)
• Forcible seizure or retention of State power or forcible alteration of the constitutional order under the version in force before 28 October 2016 (Art. 278)
• Forcible alteration of the constitutional order, including its secular character, or seizure of State power on grounds of religious hostility, radicalism or fanaticism (Art. 278.2)
• Illegal crossing of the protected State border without prescribed documents or outside an authorized border-control point in aggravated circumstances (Art. 318.2)
• Forgery or unlawful production of an identity document or other official document conferring rights or releasing a person from obligations, for the purpose of its use, or sale of such a document (Art. 320.1)
• Knowing use of a forged document (Art. 320.2)

Conviction and Sentence:

On 16 August 2021, the Baku Assize Court found Akif Aliyev guilty and sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment in a strict-regime penitentiary institution, with the sentence calculated from 13 July 2018 and his period of detention credited toward it. Although the court found him guilty under Arts. 318.2, 320.1 and 320.2, no punishment was imposed for those offences because the statutory limitation period had expired. The Baku Court of Appeal upheld the judgment on 15 April 2022, and the Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals on 3 May 2024.

Political Prisoner Status:

His imprisonment meets criteria (c) and (e) of PACE Resolution 1900 (2012):

• (c) The 20-year sentence appears clearly disproportionate to the conduct individually and reliably established against him. He was not shown to have directly participated in Safarov’s attack but was held responsible for an extensive terrorist and anti-State conspiracy based largely on association, communications and disputed evidence.
• (e) The proceedings were affected by serious fair-trial deficiencies, including rejected defence motions, unresolved contradictions and evidentiary weaknesses, and insufficient individualization of Aliyev’s criminal responsibility within the broader alleged organized conspiracy.

Summary:

Akif Aliyev is an Azerbaijani citizen who worked as an electrician at the Ganja Automobile Plant and had no previous convictions. He was detained on 12 July 2018 following Yunis Safarov’s attack on Elmar Valiyev. Aliyev was not alleged to have participated directly in the shooting, but prosecutors accused him of belonging to Safarov’s organized group and participating in a broader terrorist and anti-State conspiracy. He pleaded not guilty and denied involvement in terrorism, an attempted coup or the attack on Valiyev.

The prosecution relied principally on events dating back to 2012, Aliyev’s personal contacts with Safarov, his arrangement of one night’s accommodation for Safarov in 2017 and private religious discussions recovered from his telephone. A particularly important evidentiary problem concerned the alleged forged-document episode: Aliyev denied completing or signing the relevant application, and a forensic handwriting examination confirmed that the handwriting and signatures were made by another person.

Aliyev acknowledged arranging for Safarov to stay one night at his sister’s apartment in June 2017, but this established only a personal connection and did not itself demonstrate that he shared Safarov’s intention to attack Valiyev or participate in terrorism or a coup. Prosecutors also relied on private religious WhatsApp discussions as evidence of ideological affinity, although the communications themselves did not identify Valiyev as a target or establish a specific terrorist or coup plan. Defence lawyers further stated that more than 70 motions seeking fuller examination of the evidence were rejected during the first-instance proceedings.

Aliyev’s case is regarded as part of the broader pattern of politically instrumental prosecutions arising from the 2018 Ganja events. Personal associations, a disputed document episode, temporary accommodation provided to Safarov and private religious communications were combined to attribute responsibility for attempted murder, terrorism and forcible seizure of power despite the absence of direct participation in the July 2018 attack. Azerbaijani human-rights defenders continue to list Akif Aliyev as a political prisoner.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Download full legal analysis here as PDF