The Baku Military Court held a trial on Friday in the criminal case of the former head of the main counter-intelligence directorate of the liquidated Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan, Miraziz Asgarov, accused of extorting a large sum of money from businessman Vidadi Azizov.
Victim Vidadi Azizov testified at the trial presided over by judge Elbay Allahverdiyev, claming that he had never been acquainted with Miraziz Asgarov before, APA reported.
Confirming the testimony he gave during the investigation, Azizov said that money was transferred from Dubai to Zaminbank in 2012.
“My friend named Nariman gave me one million manats that he took from the bank, and I returned 300,000 manat to him. At that time, I bought a house from a friend of Nariman, and the money should be transferred to him. At that moment, were surrounded by some MNS employees and taken to the ministry, where I was accused of treason and spying for Iran,” said victim Azizov.
The victim noted that he then talked to Asgarov and agreed on his release in exchange for money: “I said I would give him 100,000 manats. When asked where I would get this amount, I replied that I would give some of the money they had taken from me. Then, Asgarov said that this money does not belong to me.”
The victim said he was kept at the ministry till the night, then was released without being questioned. They took 300,000 dollars from him for the release.
Azizov said that Asgarov demanded 100,000 dollars from him, but they agreed on 40,000 dollars.
“I was asked about the head of an Iranian company, Jamshidian, they noted that he is a general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). I said I knew him as a businessman, I’ve met with heads of several leading companies in Iran and Jamshidian was one of them,” he added.
Miraziz Asgarov accused the victim of lying.
“We have collected enough evidence about Vidadi Azizov. He said that Jamshidian is an Iranian businessman. Everyone knows that Jamshidian was an IRGC general. He said he couldn’t present documents on business activities with those companies. The reason is that Iran was under international sanctions at that time. These companies were operating illegally, engaged in money laundering,” he added.
The trial will be continued on May 12.
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