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Incident

Judicial survey on the case of â€œForest brothersâ€ group begins

06 July 2009 11:05 (UTC +04:00)

According to APA, the court presided over by judge Karamat Aliyev specified the personal details of the accused persons. Some of the defendants refused to use lawyerâ€™s service. Zabit Shikhbabayevâ€™s lawyer Elman Osmanov demanded to investigate evidences related to his defendant and to remove articles 228.3, 234.3 of the Penal Code from the indictment against him. Defendant Khalig Velimetov demanded his lawyer to return money he received. The court keeps the petitions on the table and said it would be reviewed during the process.

The judicial survey will continue in the second half of the day.

The defendants faced charges under Articles 214 (terrorism), 120 (premeditated murder), 279 (creation of armed formations or groups, which are not provided by the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic), 228 (illegal purchase, transfer, selling, storage, transportation and carrying of fire-arms, accessories to it, supplies, explosives) of the Criminal Code. 26 were detained during the initial investigation. They are Azerbaijanis Elnur Bashirov, Gudrat Malikov, Khalid Valimatov, Ulfat Malikov, Vahid Asadov, Zabit Shikhbabayev, Fariz Mammadov, Samir Babayev, Anar Valimatov, Rasim ISgandarov, Elshan allahverdiyev, Rafig Agajanov, Taleh Maharramov, Teymur Narimanov, Bozorgi Kamran, Azer Bakhishov, Musa Orujov, Alexander Nuraliyev, Mammad Mammadov, Elkhan Osmanov, Zaur Jafarov, Rufat Rzayev, Sardar Bunyatov, Russian citizens Magomed Isayev and Turkish citizens Yamin Ali and Ozdemir Ergin.

According to indictment, Ilgar â€œAbdulmajeedâ€ Mollaciyev from Zagatala Region of Azerbaijan, his brother-in-law Samir â€œSuleymanâ€ Mehdiyev and other persons involved in radical religious group with them were identified implicated in an explosion in Abu Bakr mosque in Baku on August 17, 2008. The Ministry of National Security arrested the Sumgayit group (Abu Jafar group) of 17, including the groupâ€™s leader â€“ Naif Abdulkarim Al-Badawi in 2007. Later Mollaciyev and Mehdiyev formed a new group planning to commit terrorist attacks to violate socio-political stability in Azerbaijan. 13 members of the group were arrested by the Ministry of National Security and large deal of ammunitions, explosives, schemes, instructions, communication means, maps, battle instructions for the mountainous and forestry areas, military equipments and others were confiscated from them. Two of them â€“ Taleh Maharramov and Samir Babayev gave detailed evidences about the activity, plans and intentions of the group. They said those persons helped Samir Mehdiyev, Ilgar Mollaciyev and others, who illegally crossed the state borders of Azerbaijan on July 19, to arrive in Baku and Sumgayit. The first part of the â€œForest Brothersâ€ â€“ â€œSumgayit Jamaatâ€ had to commit robberies in Baku and to collect money to fund armament and terrorist attacks. The second part â€“ â€œGuba and Gusar Jamaatâ€ had to set military camps in the mountainous and forestry areas of the republic. Member of the â€œForest Brothersâ€ Araz Balabeyov and several others, were killed during the anti-terror operations in southern regions of Dagestan.