Azerbaijan security service operation in five international locations
Azerbaijan says cash collected for spiritual ceremonies was transferred to terrorist organisations utilizing cryptocurrency. In a statement issued on 18 September, the State Security Service (SSS) mentioned the alleged financing scheme and preparations to assassinate public and non secular figures had been being investigated as a part of the identical felony case.
Nonetheless, the assertion revealed by the media doesn’t specify the amount of cash concerned, the organisations alleged to have obtained it, or the five international locations the place the operations had been carried out.
Info out there from open sources doesn’t enable the dimensions of the case to be independently verified. Accessible experiences largely repeat the account supplied by the company conducting the investigation.
Prices introduced
The SSS named the defendants as Vugar Abdullayev, Jalal Hajiyev, Javid Aliyev, Nijat Ahmadov, Nazim Aliyev, Ilkin Hasanzade, Aykhan Huseynov, Elshan Asgarov, Fakhraddin Imanov, Nail Rasulov and Elgun Ismayilov. Though the assertion says 10 individuals had been detained, it lists 11 defendants. The rationale for the discrepancy just isn’t defined.
They’ve been charged beneath Prison Code articles referring to financing terrorism, forming a felony organisation, making ready an assassination try towards a state or public determine, and different offences. In accordance with the SSS, a courtroom ordered the defendants to be remanded in custody.
Hyperlink between two strands of case
Within the SSS account, Jalal Hajiyev’s title seems each in reference to the alleged assassination plot and the financing scheme. The company says Vugar Abdullayev and different defendants gathered details about the actions and security preparations of the alleged targets. Hajiyev, in the meantime, is alleged to have used his contacts overseas to rearrange cash transfers to individuals concerned in armed conflicts, in addition to to terrorist organisations.
Though the 2 strands are being investigated as a part of the identical case, the SSS doesn’t specify how they’re linked financially. Have been the funds allegedly transferred overseas used to finance preparations for the assassination makes an attempt in Azerbaijan? Though a number of the similar people function in each strands of the case, no proof has been introduced to determine a hyperlink between the motion of funds and the planning of the alleged assaults.
How was cash traced?
In accordance with the SSS, the funds had been collected by means of faux ads posted on social media, purportedly searching for donations for spiritual ceremonies. The company says investigators obtained proof displaying the place the cash got here from and the way it was transferred.
To independently assess these claims, key proof would come with an archive of the ads, cost particulars, transaction dates and details about the recipients. It’s also unclear whether or not those that transferred the cash knew its alleged true goal or had been themselves deceived – a distinction that might suggest totally different levels of accountability.
The reference to cryptocurrency alone doesn’t clarify how the alleged financing scheme labored. The SSS doesn’t say which digital property had been used, who managed the addresses concerned in the transactions, or how investigators established hyperlinks between the recipients and terrorist organisations.
A 2023 report by the Monetary Motion Job Power (FATF) describes the dangers of social media fundraising and using digital property for terrorist financing. It additionally highlights the problem of proving that funds had been meant for terrorist functions and stresses the significance of defending official charitable exercise.
Worldwide expertise means that the mechanism described by the SSS is feasible in precept. Nonetheless, the allegations towards particular people would must be supported by proof in the felony case. Up to now, that proof has not been made public.
