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SalamNews and Interaz CEO testified in court

28 January 2025 09:42 (UTC +04:00)

The trial of the criminal case of the head of the SalamNews and Interaz news agency Metleb Baghirov continues, APA reports.

M. Baghirov testified at the Baku Court of Grave Crimes chaired by Judge Leyla Asgarova.

He stated that he had lived outside the country since 2003 and was also a citizen of Russia: "I am also a citizen of Russia and have established a business there. They say that my companies were created in Azerbaijan, and the companies in Türkiye and Russia are branches. The "İnteraz" channel was created in Russia and was a diaspora channel. I bought it in 2007. And in 2009, I created the SalamNews agency. My goal was to spread the news in Azerbaijan."

Metleb Baghirov also stated that he disagreed with the charges under the article on legalization: "As for legalization, spending my earned money in Azerbaijan is not illegal. The money was not obtained through criminal means. I did not earn this money through racketeering and did not steal it. How could I legalize money if it was not dirty? I spent what I earned."

The next hearing will be held on February 10.

Let us recall that Metleb Bagirov, known as Haji Metleb, received a religious education abroad and founded the news agencies InterAz and SalamNews. He was arrested on January 20, 2023, as part of a criminal case being investigated by the State Security Service. The State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy was recognized as the injured party in the case. M. Baghirov was charged under a number of articles of the Criminal Code.